DAILY BREAKING NEWS @ JFPDAILY.COM

Vol. 8 | No. 36 // May 20 - 26, 2010

FREE

Ronni Mott Talks to Four Abusers, pp 14 - 19

The JFP Seeks Wellness, The JFP Seeks Wellness, The JFP Seeks Wellness, The JFP Seeks Wellness, The JFP Seeks Wellness, The JFP Seeks Wellness, The JFP Seeks Wellness, The JFP Seeks Wellness, The JFP Seeks Wellness, The JFP Seeks Wellness, The JFP Seeks Wellness, The JFP Seeks Wellness, The JFP Seeks Wellness, The JFP Seeks Wellness, The JFP Seeks Wellness, The JFP Seeks Wellness, The JFP Seeks Wellness, The JFP Seeks Wellness, The JFP Seeks Wellness, The JFP Seeks Wellness, The JFP Seeks Wellness, The JFP Seeks Wellness, The JFP Seeks Wellness, The JFP Seeks Wellness,

Plant Your Garden, Plant Your Garden, Plant Your Garden, Plant Your Garden, Plant Your Garden, Plant Your Garden, Plant Your Garden, Plant Your Garden, Plant Your Garden, Plant Your Garden, Plant Your Garden, Plant Your Garden,

Guaqueta & Guaqueta & Guaqueta & Guaqueta & Guaqueta & Guaqueta & Guaqueta & Guaqueta & Guaqueta & Guaqueta & Guaqueta & Guaqueta &

The JFP Seeks Wellness, p 21

Plant Your Garden, Blom, p 24

Guaqueta & Storm, p 26

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Berona’s 100 Year War

PReview Book National Release Party!!

May 22nd1pm to 5pm

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Available in the iTunes

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News, music listings, local restaurant menus, JFP podcast, blog headlines, recent comments and Twitter updates.

There’s an app for that!

It’s Here! Announcing:JFP MOBILEfor the iPhone

Much more, including blog headlines, recent comments, instant access to our Best of Jackson 2010 content!

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Visit http://jfp.ms/iphone or search for‘JFP Mobile’ at the iTunes Store.

Cover illustration byMelissa Webster

Page 3 Redesigned byAyatti D. Hatcher

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bob hudson

4.................Editor’s Note

4......................Slow Poke

6................................ Talk

12.........................Editorial

12...........................Stiggers

12............................... Zuga

21..................... Body/Soul

24...................................Fly

26..........................Hitched

30............................8 Days

31.....................JFP Events

34............................. Books

36.................................Arts

37............................. Music

38.............. Music Listings

40............................... Food

44............................. Sports

45...............................Astro

May 20 - 26, 2010 VOL. 8 NO. 36

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Tangled WebConvention Center Hotel developers are part of an intriguing web.

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No DefenseIs Mississippi providing adequate post-conviction defense in capital murder cases?

Asking WhyToo often, the question is: “Why doesn’t she leave?” We ask, “Why does he abuse?”

Strong WomenThe exhibit “Portrait of Jackson Women” challenges stereotypes of women and Mississippians.

Local poet Bob Hudson leans for-ward, adjusts his reading glasses and plunges me into another universe. His wiry voice guides me through his strange world of words and ideas, illuminating the path through “Enemy Country,” a poem in his “Into The Cold Wind” collection.

Born and raised in south Jackson by a Southern Baptist preacher, Hudson, 47, recalls an idyllic childhood fi lled with love and security. He spent a year at Mississippi College but quickly decided college wasn’t right for him at that time. He dropped out, picked up a job parking cars and started reading books—lots of books. Hudson jokes that Lemuria Bookstore could have paid its power bill with the purchases he made there every month.

Hudson’s love of bicycling took him to New York City in 1985, where he spent a couple years as a messenger. The pull of the South proved too strong, however, and Hudson returned to Mississippi in 1987. He returned to school, receiving an Eng-lish degree from the University of South-ern Mississippi in 1991, and drove com-mercial trucks for nine years. Hudson then bought a house in Fondren and found a job at Pearl River Glass Studio on Millsaps Avenue as an installation specialist.

“After being on the road, you know, all over the country all the time, this is just like heaven,” Hudson says.

Jackson holds a variety of attrac-

tions for the book-loving, bicycling poet. Hudson appreciates the artistic output of the city, saying that though larger art com-munities can be found in other cities, they often come at the price of higher crime, population density and higher cost of liv-ing. Here in Jackson, Hudson has found that there is space to move and stretch.

You may have seen Hudson bicycling down the streets of Jackson or reading his poetry on Sunday nights at Cultural Expressions.

If you wander around Fondren dur-ing Fondren After 5, you might fi nd him handing out copies of his self-published poetry collections.

His collections are produced through a top-secret home-publishing process, Hudson says. He has a few copies for sale at Sneaky Beans on State Street, but he says that most of his success comes in face-to-face interactions.

When asked about the fi nancial impact of his writing, Hudson smiles. “Demand is not overwhelming me at this point in time,” he says. He then leans back, takes a swig of a Miller High Life and adds: “I can’t understand that at all. This was my get rich scheme. It’s going to work.I know.”

But all joking aside, his rationale for writing is quite simple: Crafting a success-ful poem is fun.

—Jonathan Eastman

editor’snote by Lacey McLaughlin, News Editor

Web producer Korey Harrion is a saxophonist who runs a small computer-repair business. He enjoys reading, writing and play-ing music, origami and playing video games. He loves animals, especially dogs. He posts the Web stories for each issue.

I was running late and felt lost in the hallways of the Dirksen Senate Offi ce Building in Washington, D.C, last week, as I attempted to fi nd Sen. Roger Wicker’s

offi ce. My feet ached because I had bought into the “pain equals beauty” mantra and walked miles in heels. I was in D.C. after the CARE organization invited me to attend their conference, I followed two young Mississippi women as they lobbied on behalf of legislation to improve access to food, health and mater-nal care for women throughout the world. Each year advocates attend the CARE conference in Washington, D.C., and lobby their state representatives to act on global ini-tiatives. CARE is a humanitarian organization based in Atlanta that provides sustainable so-lutions to global poverty, focusing on women and children. More than 800 advocates attended the conference to receive a crash course in lobbying and training on global is-sues affecting women. This was the fi rst year that advocates from Mississippi attended. After arriving in time to see Jackson women Brittany Hickman and former JFP editorial intern Sital Sanjanwala take these issues to our state leaders, I leaned against a wall outside Wicker’s offi ce to catch my breath. Suddenly, I felt something cold and wet on my arm. As I turned around, I realized that I had leaned up against a freshly painted white wall in my new black dress—now striped black and white. Navigating my way through D.C., in rush hour and getting stuck on a Metro train had already put a damper on the morning. I was starting to feel more like Bridget Jones than Nellie Bly. This experience reminded me of how easy it is to get tunnel vision when we are consumed by our own problems. When I learned about the obstacles that the majority of women face in developing countries, my problems started to pale in comparison. For example, 60 million girls aged 17 or younger are married—many to men twice their age. Many of these girls marry as young as 10. Before getting the chance to fully develop or have an opportunity to suc-ceed, they are having children and becoming family caretakers. Lack of education and economic op-portunities are just two factors why girls are married so young. In countries such as Sierra Leone, Nepal and India, marrying off a young girl is a way for families to gain fi nancial sta-bility. Maternal-care issues are another issue for women in many countries, including our own. Every minute of the day a woman dies during pregnancy or childbirth due to inad-equate medical care or facilities. But we can take steps to improve the lives of women in the world. Last week U.S. Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., introduced the Global MOMS Act that would give the U.S. an op-portunity to improve maternal health around the world. The bill would create collaborations between U.S. agencies and develop a strategy to end barriers to health care for mothers and

newborns, such as providing more health clin-ics and family planning education. Another piece of legislation, the Interna-tional Preventing Child Marriage Act of 2009, calls for President Barack Obama to develop a strategy to prevent child marriage in devel-oping countries and integrate child-marriage

prevention policies in U.S. Foreign Policy. During the conference, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave the keynote address and called on attendees to be the voice for others. “We need to be the actors, we need to channel our care into action,” Clinton said. “By creating the conditions in which families and communities thrive, we can create stabil-ity, opportunity and progress far beyond any one community and any one country.” She ended her address saying, “Talent is universal, opportunity is not.” It’s easy to have tunnel vision, especially in Mississippi. We have some of the highest rates of poverty, obesity and infant mortality. A majority of our citizens are undereducated, and the status of women is signifi cantly lower than other states. So why add solving the rest of the world’s problems to our list?

Because if we don’t, who will? Derreck Kayongo, a regional coordinator for CARE, is a former refugee from Uganda. As one of the conference’s trainers on legislative issues, he talked about the importance of acting on a global scale. “Mississippi and Africa have some of the same issues,” he said. “Championing rights for women in Somalia is one way to share similar stories. The more spokespersons we have, the more seriously these issues will be taken.” On the last day of the conference I watched as Sanjanwala and Hickman over-came their fi rst-time lobbying jitters and spoke to staff members from the offi ces of Sens. Wicker and Thad Cochran, and U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper. These young women spent their time and money to be the voice for others. If we look at the success of organiza-tions like CARE and other programs in developing countries, perhaps we can ad-dress some of our own issues in Mississippi. I know fi rsthand how diffi cult it can be to think of problems that seem so far away, and many times it feels as if there isn’t enough we can do on a personal level that can make a signifi cant difference. I’d like to see more women be voices for women who can’t speak for themselves—in our state and beyond. This week’s cover story about domestic violence by Ronni Mott is one way that the Jackson Free Press strives to do just that. But in terms of looking outside our own borders, we have the opportunity as in-dividuals to tell our elected offi cials about the role of our country in improving the lives of others and creating a better future for women and children that allows them to use their talents and skills.

Valerie Wells

Randi Ashley Jackson

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Account manager Randi Ashley Jackson is a Brandon/Reservoir- area native. She loves organic gardening and her goldfish Gill-Bert. She strives to be the next Food Network star chef, if only in her own mind. She manages JFP sales accounts.

Ronni Mott came to Jackson by way of D.C. in 1997. She’s a writer, photographer and the JFP’s managing editor, where she practices her hobbies of herding cats and curmudgeonliness. She teaches yoga in her spare time. She wrote the cover story.

Melissa Webster is a Delta State University graduate. Her life currently revolves around making art, taking care of a neurotic “wildcat” and dreaming of a 124-count pack of Crayolas. She illustrated the cover and the cover story.

Valerie Wells is a freelance writer who lives in Hattiesburg. She writes often for regional publica-tions. Follow her on Twitter at sehoy13. She wrote an arts piece.

Casey Purvis

Casey Purvis is a Fondrenite who loves planting flowers and watch-ing the birds in her backyard. She is a sucker for a thought-provok-ing documentary. She is owned by Phoebe, a 9-year-old Lhasa Apso and works as a nurse. She wrote Body/Soul.

Melissa Webster

Diandra Hosey

A native of Bay Springs., Diandra Hosey played women’s basketball at Jones County Junior College and Mississippi College. She received her law degree from MC School of Law and is with the Law Offices of Matt Greenbaum. She wrote the sports column.

Korey Harrion

Be the Actors

It’s easy to have tunnel vision, especially in Mississippi.

Lance Lomax is a manager and technical writer for a local transportation firm. He lives in Ridgeland and graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi. He wrote a music piece.

Lance Lomax

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BUTT

The city council met behind closed doors Tuesday evening to discuss a possible cost-sharing agreement with developers of a $200 million mixed-used develop-

ment along four blocks of Pascagoula street that would include a convention center hotel. The JFP Daily reported online Tuesday that TCI-MS, the LLC that owns the property, has not paid property taxes for 2009, and is linked to a controversial developer.

The Hinds County Tax Collector’s web-site showed that TCI-MS owes $120,463.34 in property taxes for all its investments in Hinds County and $16,990.36 for properties associated with the hotel, due Feb. 1.

Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. said Monday that he was unaware of the tax de-linquency. “We want to make sure that the property, that all the taxes are paid and that we

are satisfied that all this will be taken care of, but you’re telling me some-thing that I didn’t know,” Johnson said when the Jackson Free Press asked him about the overdue taxes.

In 2006, Mark Small, president of MJS Realty in Dallas, formed TCI-MS, a limited liabil-ity company, as a part-nership with the publicly traded Transcontinental

Realty Investors, also based in Dallas, to pur-chase the property located between Pearl, Mill and Pascagoula streets in downtown Jackson for $1.5 million.

The proposed development would con-sist of two hotels, residential, retail and office space. The current plan entails a 19-story Crowne Plaza Hotel with 300 guest rooms, a 175-room Staybridge Suites Hotel, a 1,500-car garage, skywalks linking the hotels with the convention complex, a 200-unit luxury apartment building and a 150-unit indepen-dent senior living complex.

A recent public-records request to the Jackson Redevelopment Authority revealed that TCI-MS was the only entity to submit a bid proposal for the project in 2006.

Prior to the closed meeting on Tuesday, city attorney Pieter Teeuwissen said the meet-

ing was being held in executive session because the state’s open meetings law exempts discus-sions concerning the purchase, sale or lease of property, and relocation of a businesss or industry from public meetings.

Michael Cory, an attorney with the Danks, Miller, Hamer and Cory Law Firm representing Small and TCI-MS, said Tuesday that he did not know about the unpaid prop-erty taxes but said he would look into the mat-ter. “That was something I was unaware of, but they will certainly be brought up to date,” Cory said. “Certainly, we want to see the city get their taxes and see them paid properly.”

Cory said that TCI-MS and TCI are not the same entity, but are partners in the Capital City Center development.

TCI is closely connected with Basic Cap-ital Management founder and former CEO Gene Phillips, who former Mayor Frank Melton championed for high-price develop-ment in Jackson. The JFP previously reported that Phillips has a history of controversial busi-ness involvements. His company, Phillips De-velopment, filed bankruptcy in 1973, showing $30 million in debt. A second company that he chaired, Southmark Corp., went bankrupt in 1989 during the high-profile savings-and loan-scandal and had assets of more than $8.5 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. In 2010, Phillips’ ownership and role in the companies he and his family cre-

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The proposed $200 million Capital City Center development would consist of two hotels, residential, retail and offi ce space along four blocks of Pascagoula Street.

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The Saga of the Convention Hotel by Lacey McLaughlin

n e w s , c u l t u r e & i r r e v e r e n c e

Wednesday, May 12The Republican Party selects Tampa,

Fla., as the site of its 2012 presidential nominating convention. … One young boy appears to be the only survivor after a Libyan airliner crashes while landing at the Tripoli, Libya airport, killing 92 passengers.

Thursday, May 13The United Nations General Assem-

bly elects 14 new members to the Human Rights Council, including several coun-tries accused of human rights violations, including Thailand and Uganda. … The Mississippi Senate passes a bill that gives Gov. Haley Barbour more leeway in cutting funding for state agencies to balance the state’s budget.

Friday, May 14The U.S. Small Business Administra-

tion announces that it will provide loans in 11 south Mississippi counties to help fi shing-related businesses recover from oil spill damage. … Gov. Haley Barbour joins the multi-state lawsuit challenging the con-stitutionality of the federal health-care bill Congress passed earlier this year.

Saturday, May 15Scientists fi nd giant oil plumes deep

in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. … In Bangkok, the Thai government continues its efforts to cut off anti-government protes-tors from the rest of the city.

Sunday, May 16BP engineers achieve some success

at the Deepwater Horizon site when they use a mile-long pipe to capture some of the gushing oil and divert it to a tanker on the surface, 5,000 feet above the wellhead. … Police accidently shoot and kill a 7-year-old girl in Detroit, Mich., during their execution of a search warrant in a homicide investigation.

Monday, May 17The U.S. Supreme Court rules that

the federal government may indefi nitely hold inmates considered to be sexually dangerous after the completion of their prison terms. … General Motors reports $865 million in fi rst quarter profi ts, its fi rst profi table quarter since 2007. … YouTube, which receives more than 2 billion page views per day, celebrates its fi fth birthday.

Tuesday, May 18Shell Oil vows an exceptional response

in the event of an oil spill, including placing a pre-made dome in Alaska to use in case of a leaking well.

In Mississippi from 2004-2005 the number of infant deaths before their fi rst birthday rose from 9.7 per thousand to 11.4 per thousand, which is an increase of almost 18 percent.

“If Congress can constitutionally mandate that we all purchase health insurance, it can also force every American to buy a car or to invest in Treasury Bonds.” —Governor Haley Barbour in a May 14 statement announcing he was joining a multi-state lawsuit challenging the recently passed federal health care bill.

HOTEL, see page 7

Hinds Supervisor Phil Fisher is low on gas. p 11

CARBUY

A• Start smoking to lose weight.• Start smoking to have something in the other

hand while drinking.• Eat sausage only on days ending in “y.”• Reverse engineer lemonade into lemons.• Use 2-liter Diet Coke bottles for barbells.• Play more basketball—on X-box.• Start the Ben & Jerry’s fast.• Begin a root-beer fl oat

fast.• Adkins diet.• Daily KFC double-

downs.• Get angrier.• Stay off-center.• Work more.

ated and manage are more convoluted than in the past. In 2008, the SEC reported that he represents his children’s trust, which now owns Basic Capital, and according to the SEC and TCI-MS’ attorney Cory, Phillips advises TCI and its developments, including TCI-MS. His children’s trust owns Realty Advisors Inc., and Phillips himself owns Syntek West. Those two companies, in turn, own Prime Income Asset Management Inc., the sole member of Prime Income Asset Management LLC. That LLC is the contractual adviser to TCI. TCI is located 1800 Valley View Lane, and MJS is located at 1750 Valley View Lane in Dallas. The federal government indicted Phillips in June 2000 in an alleged scheme to bribe union officials in a proposed sale of preferred stock shares of a company advised by BCM. The FBI’s “Operation Uptick” indicted 120 people in the scheme, including members of several organized-crime families. Phillips was acquitted of those charges in 2002. Ac-cording to The Wall Street Journal, after the indictments, Phillips stepped down from his prominent role managing day-to-day opera-tions of BCM. Phillips’ family owned a company that tried to purchase the Tulsa, Okla.-based American Reserved Life Insurance Company in 1999. Despite warnings from state officials, Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Carroll Fisher approved the purchase. An Okla-homa House of Representatives’ committee investigated Fisher in 2004 for allegations of bribery. Fisher was found guilty of bribery for accepting gifts from Phillips and sentenced in 2009 to six months in a lock-down facility in

Tulsa. Phillips, however, faced no charges and has denied bribing Fisher, who authorities said refused to cooperate. Cory defended Phillips Tuesday, pointing to his achievements. “All you have to do is look at his track record, what he has done in the last 10 to 15 years. He has done huge projects in the United States and other countries; he has been a very successful developer,” Cory said. “I don’t think it would be fair to look into the fact that he was acquitted of charges as an indication of his competence and expertise as a developer,” he added. “There are people that are wrongly charged, unfortunately, in this country everyday, and those who can afford to defend themselves frequently, or ultimately, are found not to have done anything wrong, and I think that was the case with Gene.” Gene Phillips’ website shows that his, his real estate management company Prime Income Asset Management manages more than $3.54 billion in assets. Phillips is also the founder of Prime Income Asset Management, a real estate and energy management company with over $3.54 billion in managed assets. PIAM is currently constructing a 425-acre resort called Port Olpeniz in Germany. Phillips is also the chairman of Balkan Energy Company LLC, a privately owned energy company that con-ducts power projects in developing countries. MJS lists several current and complete hotel projects on their website, including an Extended Stay Hotel in St. Thomas, the Ritz Carlton in San Franciso, the Centura Hotel in Dallas, and Hyatts in Texas and Colorado. Mark Small did not return calls for comment. See updates at jacksonfreepress.com.

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Beginning Wednesday, May 19, Mississippi liquor stores will of-fer a truly local spirit. Cathead Vodka, the fi rst

legally distilled spirit in the state, goes on sale this week, after a nearly three-year development process. The corn-based alcohol is a joint venture of Jackson native Austin Evans and Georgia transplant Rich-ard Patrick. “This is a project we’ve been working on for three years,” Evans said. “It’s something we’ve always wanted to do—a project we’ve had in the back of our heads since we’ve known each other.” Evans, 29, and Patrick, 27, met at the University of Alabama, where both studied business. Cathead Vodka is the fi rst busi-ness venture for the duo, and they have enlisted the help of several silent investors. With no precedent for their idea in Mississippi, Evans and Patrick have had to fi nd their way through the maze of state

and federal permits themselves. The state Alcoholic Beverage Control has been help-ful, though, Evan says, especially on tax

issues. The two have started with a fi rst bottling run of 2,000 cases. They plan to scale up production once they secure additional per-mits for on-site distilling at their Gluckstadt facility. “The main focus we’ve had is liquor stores, because that’s the fi rst cycle of consumers,” Evans said.

“Some bars and restaurants do purchase through liquor stores, so we couldn’t really do bars and restaurants ’til the liquor stores had it. Our next step is to start approach-ing on-premise sites, which are bars and (restaurants), and hopefully get them to pick it up and carry it and pour it.” Evans describes Cathead’s image as “a good old Southern distillery—for a place that’s had a bunch of moonshining and illegal distilleries, a real one to repre-sent the state.”

State’s First Legal Distillery Opens by Ward Schaefer

Austin Evans and Richard Patrick are co-owners of Cathead Vodka, the state’s fi rst locally distilled legal spirit.

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talkHOTEL, from page 6

n e w s , c u l t u r e & i r r e v e r e n c e

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The National Oceanic and Atmo-spheric Administration announced Tuesday that it is expanding the ban zone on fi shing in the Gulf to about

20 percent of the entire Gulf as a result of the continuing jet of oil erupting into the ocean fl oor off the coast of Louisiana. British Petroleum’s Deepwater Hori-zon exploded April 20, killing 11 people and triggering an underwater geyser of oil 5,000 feet below the ocean, which con-tinues to spew an indescribable amount of crude oil into Gulf waters. Early esti-mates put the daily eruption at more than 210,000 gallons of oil a day, although NOAA stopped attempting to log the amount due to the unreliability of data. The administration outlined an ever-expanding fi shing ban that already extends south of the Florida panhandle and now creeps toward the placid waters of the Florida peninsula and Key West. Marine scientists say the spread of the oil may be facilitated by BP’s use of deter-gents to break up the oil, and fear for the future of the Gulf ’s coral reefs. “The oil companies are making a judgment call on a trade-off on which ecosystems to sacrifi ce: the shoreline and surface animals or the water column,” San-dra Brooke, coral conservation director for the Marine Conservation Biology Institute of Bellevue, Wa., said. “It’s partly a PR exercise, because no one wants to see this nasty stuff globbing up onshore, but with the amount of oil, you’re not really trading anything off. Both ecosystems will get hit.” BP’s efforts to disperse the spill have netted a signifi cant decrease in the amount of surface oil riding the waves to Gulf state beaches; however, Brooke told the Jackson Free Press that BP’s use of almost 600,000 gallons of a dispersant, both on the surface and injected directly into the well, virtually insures that the oil will break its habit of fl oating and travel directly through the sea-water all along the Gulf. Bacteria feeding on the oil could consume all the oxygen in

the water and create widespread incidence of dead zones comparable to the seasonal zooplankton dead zone near the mouth of the Mississippi River. The dead zone could envelope delicate

coral reefs as far as Florida Keys’ National Marine Sanctuary and Texas, but Brooke said an even more extensive deepwater reef spanning the Gulf could ultimately feel the impact. “The problem with inserting disper-sants at depth is that the most well-devel-oped deepwater coral system we know of in the Gulf of Mexico is less than 100 kilo-meters up the shelf from (the massive leak). Nobody has been considering the effects of that dispersed crap on the real deep-water corals,” Brooke said. “I’ve worked exten-sively on the deepwater system. We’re go-ing back there in September, and I’m a bit concerned with what we’re going to see.” BP made its legal commitment to the oil damage last week. The company put in writing a list of vocal obligations to attor-neys general from fi ve Gulf states, including

a commitment to quick claim assistance to fi shing and tourist industry workers af-fected by the oil; a second commitment to waive a $75 million cap on liability and claims from the Transocean/Deepwater Horizon deepwater oil rig; and an agree-ment to dismiss contracts signed by boaters and fi shermen BP paid to participate in the company’s clean-up effort that prevented them from fi ling lawsuits over the spill. “BP intends to take responsibility for responding to the MC 252 spill,” stated BP attorney John E. Lynch in the May 10 letter. Brooke said she feared the poisonous dispersant/oil mix travels more easily with the east bound Gulf current, and doubted the legal claims against the company would ultimately counter the extensive amount of environmental damage. The Gulf Restoration Network and the Sierra Club carried the fi ght to the U.S. government on Tuesday, fi ling a May 18 suit in U.S. District Court, in New Orleans, against the U.S. Minerals Management Service for exempting oil companies drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from disclosing blowout and worst case oil spill scenarios. The suit maintains that law requires the Minerals Management Service to include blowout and worst-case oil-spill scenarios before approving offshore drilling plans, but that MMS approved the Hori-zon rig without this step. “The basic problem here is that the Minerals Management Service tried to change the law without telling anybody,” stated Sierra Club attorney Robert Wiygul in a May 18 press release. “That’s bad poli-cy, and the BP mess proves it’s a disaster for the environment.” The suit asks the court to not only invalidate MMS’ practice of removing compliance requirement but orders a review of existing offshore drilling plans that do not comply with existing rules. The suit was fi led in federal court in New Orleans.

NOAA Expands Gulf No-Fishing Zone

BP is still attempting to contain the results of an April 20 explosion using fl oat booms, but NOAA has imposed a fi shing ban that extends beyond the Florida panhandle.

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Steve Knox has been on Mississippi’s death row for murder since 1999. In a lawsuit fi led May 6, Jackson attorney Jim Craig says that the state’s legal

system has repeatedly failed Knox and 15 other death-row inmates. The problems with Knox’s representation began with a woefully underprepared lawyer in his original trial and continued when a state-funded agency failed to thoroughly investigate the original trial for later, post-conviction petitions, Craig alleges. Charles Press, now a senior attorney with the California Innocence Project, tried to help Knox’s trial attorney. Along with Debra Sabah, now his wife, Press provided pro bono assistance on death penalty cases in Mississippi from 1998 to 2001. The two met with Knox’s attorney the weekend before his trial and drafted several pre-trial mo-tions for the attorney to use, including motions for DNA evidence and a psychi-atric evaluation. The trial attorney, who had not prepared for the trial before meeting Press and Sabah, fi led only one of the mo-tions, however. “That was a startling lack of prepara-tion,” Press said. “Even by Mississippi stan-dards, I hadn’t seen someone going to trial in a death penalty case who did that little. It was doomed.” Evidence of Knox’s ill-prepared trial lawyer may have helped Knox obtain a lighter sentence, but the state-appointed lawyers who represent death-row prisoners after conviction never raised the evidence in their 2003 petition on his behalf. They also did not seek new DNA testing, which, in the case of Knox’s federal lawyers, has raised doubts about whether Knox’s blood matches that found on the victim. In 2005, the state Supreme Court denied Knox’s petition and reaffi rmed his death sentence. Knox is one of 16 death-row prisoners suing Mississippi for failure to adequately staff and fund the Offi ce of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel, which represents death-sentenced prisoners after they have exhausted the state appeals process. The lawsuit, fi led May 6 in Hinds County Chancery Court, alleges that the Mississippi Supreme Court, which appoints the offi ce’s executive director, prevented successive directors from hiring private attorneys to help shoulder a rapidly growing caseload. In the suit, Craig alleges that the state Legislature compounded the offi ce’s staffi ng shortage by repeatedly slash-ing its budget. State law requires prisoners sentenced to

death to raise any complaints of government misconduct, ineffective representation or jury issues their in post-conviction petitions. De-veloping a petition for post-conviction relief takes an enormous amount of time, however: attorneys must trawl through trial and appeals records, as well as re-interview witnesses. The American Bar Association provides a guideline for workload on capital post-con-viction cases of 800 to 1200 hours per case. Work on post-conviction cases often extends well beyond the ABA guideline, Press said. “By the time someone gets a case in

post-conviction, it can be seven, eight years after trial,” Press said. “If it wasn’t tried very well, it’s just that much harder to try to fi nd the evidence that you need to present. … You have to present everything as sworn testimony through affi davits. It’s a really time-consum-ing process. Created in2000, the Offi ce of Capital Post-Con-viction Counsel started with a staff of three attorneys and

one investigator. The state Supreme Court began assigning cases to the offi ce almost immediately, handing the offi ce 16 cases in an eight-week span from November 2009 to January 2001. Faced with a daunting workload, then-director C. Jackson Wil-liams tried to hire private attorneys to help prepare petitions in the cases, which were due in 180 days. Chief Justice Edwin Pittman blocked Williams’ efforts, though, and in a December 2001 confi dential order charged him with “improper” actions for attempting to hire the outside attorneys, Craig says in the lawsuit. Williams resigned Dec. 31, 2001. “It started off somewhat slow, and then it became very clear that the court was just going to pile every case that they had on them,” Press said. “When Jack Williams was head, it just collapsed under the weight of the cases, and he resigned, which I think was actually the ethical thing to do given what his caseload was.” After Williams’ departure, the of-fi ce declined further. Two staff attorneys resigned, leaving new director Bob Ryan as the offi ce’s only attorney for several months. At the same time, state support for the offi ce decreased. In 2001, the Offi ce of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel received $987,285 in state appropriations. The next year, its budgets dropped 27 percent, to $719,289. In 2003, the Legislature cut the offi ce’s funding by another 10 percent, to $647,702.

Death-Row Prisoners Sue State

Steve Knox is one of 16 death-row prisoners suing the state over its post-conviction defense system.

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Join us. For our city. For our children.For our future.

Public schools do more than educate children. They measure a city’s pride. They refl ect community. They predict the social and economic well-being of a city’s future. For 20 years, Parents for Public Schools of Jackson has worked to keep our public schools strong, to empower parents as leaders for positive change, and to engage community support of our public schools.

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by Adam Lynch

NAACP Blasts MDPS’ Decision

The Mississippi NAACP is condemning Department of Public Safety Com-missioner Steve Simpson’s decision to ignore a May 11 fi nding by the U.S.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commis-sion that the department fi red Horn Lake trooper Michael McField for racially moti-vated reasons. “It is obvious that there is a structural problem within the Department of Public Safety as it relates to African American state troopers,” Mississippi NAACP President Der-rick Johnson said. “Commissioner Simpson should heed the investigation of the EEOC and begin to address the discrimination taking place within the department, so that individu-als who are charged with the responsibility of protecting and serving the people of the state have the assurance of being treated as equals.” The NAACP fi led a formal EEOC complaint last year on behalf of the Missis-sippi Central State Troopers’ Coalition, which represents about 200 black troopers, including McField. The complaint claimed that depart-ment leaders promoted less experienced white employees over black employees, and that black troopers suffered “discriminatory prac-tices and racial slurs with the knowledge and

approval of Assistant DPS Commissioner (and Highway Patrol Chief) Col. Michael Berthay, or in many instances, committed by him.” Last October, Simpson approved the fi r-ing of McField—who was one of two troopers speaking publicly about the alleged discrimi-nation, but DPS spokesman Jon Kalahar said the department had good reason to fi re him. “Obviously the commissioner stands behind not only the Mississippi highway patrol … but the Mississippi Employee Ap-peals Board,” Kalahar said. “They backed up the highway patrol’s ruling that he should be terminated and the commissioner stands with both those rulings.” The Mississippi Highway Patrol argues in papers fi led before the Mississippi Employ-ee Appeals Board that the commissioner sent McField his Oct. 30 termination papers after the department’s performance review board found four of fi ve charges against McField justifi ed, including two incidents of failure to respond to accidents. On May 2 2009, dis-patchers sent McField to work an accident in Tunica County, but McField instead called the Tunica County sheriff’s deputy to respond. Later that same day, Kalahar said dispatch-ers sent McField to a 10:56 a.m. accident in Desoto County. He arrived on the scene late and allegedly was out of uniform, wearing tennis shoes, shorts and a jacket. Kalahar said department offi cials learned of McField’s dress by pulling video footage of the accident scene from his car Aug. 20, 2009. Kalahar said McField also failed to show up for a Biloxi security detail at the National Governor’s Association Conference between July 15 -20, and offered no medical excuse. The EEOC requested Public Safety send a response to McField’s complaint, which in-cluded a list of his offenses that Kalahar said got him fi red. But the EEOC still found rea-sonable cause to believe the department had acted in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, even with the department’s charges against McField in hand. Equal Employment Opportunity Com-mission area director Wilma Scott opined in the decision that “after charging party com-

plained, the evidence showed that his activities and movements were closely monitored by his superiors, and he was constantly singled out for criticism and discharged.” The department also fi red black trooper Jerry Merrill, the second vocal complainant supported by the NAACP in its motion. Kalahar said the Mississippi Employee Appeals Board also upheld department com-plaints against Merrill for “padding his cita-tion numbers,” and for not turning over illegal drugs confi scated from violators. Jackson attorney Latrice Westbrooks, who is representing Merrill, said she has not yet received a response from the EEOC on her client’s complaint, but is expecting one. John-son said no more troopers spoke out vocally last year because they feared precisely the kind of retaliation from the department wielded against McField and Merrill. The EEOC, which has no direct power over the Mississippi Highway Patrol, recom-mended the department re-hire McField and pay him $50,000 in compensatory damages and back wages from 2009—and for the de-partment to reimburse McField’s attorneys. This opinion marks the second opinion favoring the black troopers since the NAACP fi led the complaint last year. The EEOC rendered a decision on the larger Coalition complaint last June, and found the depart-ment in violation of the Civil Rights Act. The commission suggested several things to DPS, including restitution of up to $1 million for the offi cers. The commission could eventually submit its fi ndings to the U.S. Department of Justice, which will conduct its own investigation of the issue. This means the Justice Department will now be investigating both the Coalition complaint and McField complaint. Kalahar said the department expected a different decision out of the Justice Depart-ment on both counts: “[W]e didn’t feel like they did a thorough investigation, but we feel we’ll get a fair shake out of the Justice Department because they have asked us for information and forms and we’ve provided it to them.”

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NAACP President Derrick Johnson blasted Department of Public Safety Commissioner Steve Simpson’s decision to ignore May 11 U.S. EEOC recommendations on the department’s alleged racially motivated fi ring of black troopers.

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by Ward Schaefer

Supes’ Fuelman Records publiceye

Fuel purchases by the Hinds County Board of Supervisors have cost county taxpayers over $10,000 since January 2009, according to documents ob-

tained by the Jackson Free Press. The Jackson Free Press obtained Fuelman expense reports for each of the fi ve county supervisors through a public-records request. The Fuelman program gives public em-ployees a third-party account to purchase gas for government vehicles. The program came under scrutiny in 2009, when a city of Jackson audit revealed 9,000 discrepancies in Fuelman transactions for a four-month period in 2008.

Since then, city offi cials have repeatedly urged employees to use the program cautiously. While the records reveal no apparent misuse of the Fuelman program, they do il-lustrate different patterns in the use of county-provided vehicles between supervisors. Board President Robert Graham earned the most-expensive award, racking up $3,239.47 in charges to his Fuelman account from January 2009 to March 2010. Of that, $1,558.43 was attributed to a special-projects coordinator and $1,669.85 to Graham him-self. In that span, Graham put 16,163 miles on his county vehicle. Almost all of Graham’s Fuelman purchases were in Jackson or the sur-rounding metro area, with the exception of an April 2009 trip to Tupelo. George Smith proved the most well-trav-eled supervisor, racking up 19,045 miles and total expenses of $2,948.01. Smith told the Jackson Free Press that he regularly drives 100 miles in a day, traveling across his district on county business. Smith pointed out that his district is one of the county’s largest, extending south from Woodrow Wilson Avenue to the Copiah County border. Smith also made out-of-county trips to Hernando and, in July, to Nashville for a conference of the National Association of Counties. Like all out-of-state travel, Smith’s

Nashville trip had to be approved beforehand. State law requires the board to approve out-of-state travel requests by inserting them in its meeting minutes. Smith said that he would expect his Fuelman expenses to be higher than those for Graham and Supervisor Peggy Calhoun, both of whom represent districts entirely within Jackson’s city limits. “(There) should be a whole lot of differ-ence in mine and, say, Mr. Graham’s and Ms. Calhoun’s,” Smith said. “Their (districts) are all city; they don’t have to go out of the city. From one end of my district to the other is 40 miles. If I make one trip, that’s as much as they’ll drive in a week.” While Graham and Calhoun represent the smallest districts in the county, they are not the board’s lightest drivers. Supervisor Phil Fisher, who represents a large swath of central Hinds County, including Clinton and Byram, earns that honor. Fisher is the board’s lone Republican and vociferous opponent of increases to county spending. He has appar-ently walked the fi scally conservative walk as well, buying only $697.33 in gas and travel-ing only 3,955 miles from January 2009 to March 2010. Calhoun had the next-lowest expenses, charging the county $943.83 for gas and

traveling 5,262 miles. Calhoun recorded two fuel purchases outside the metro area: one in Biloxi June 18 and another in Robinsonville, near Tunica, Aug.15. Supervisor Doug Anderson, whose district runs along Hinds County’s northern and western borders, accumulated $2,263.66 in Fuelman expenses, driving 18,359 miles. Board Attorney Crystal Martin deserves special recognition for being abundantly helpful with the public-records request that precipitated this column. Martin accepted our request via e-mail—none of this fax nonsense—and responded with an estimated cost in seven days. Even more signifi cantly, the price Martin quoted, $31, refl ected only the copying costs. She didn’t charge us retrieval costs, as she was technically allowed to, under state law. Martin’s decision to waive the retrieval costs should not be newsworthy. Unfortu-nately, many governmental bodies in Missis-sippi take advantage of state law allowing for “reasonable” retrieval and copying charges by charging prohibitively high costs for records. This is a deceptive tactic, as it allows agencies to appear open, claiming to grant a records request, while effectively stonewalling journal-ists and citizens as thoroughly as if they had denied the request from the outset.

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Supervisor Phil Fisher charged Hinds County the least for Fuelman gas purchases last year.

See the documents at jfppubliceye.com

There is much buzz around town about the new upscale Jackson restaurant Parlor Market. Owner and Chef Craig Noone’s concept for Parlor Market, to open this summer at 115

W. Capitol Street in downtown Jackson, is to incorporate history into the design and bring seasonal Southern fare mixed with fi ne dining.

Upscale Southern food will change on the menu as often as the seasons of Mississippi. Produce from local farmers will be incorporated into the menu. For example, the menu’s Summer Salad will have corn, purple hull peas, heirloom tomatoes, cornbread croutons and tomato vinaigrette.

“We will offer healthier choices, lighter than traditional Southern food,” said Noone. “Light, refreshing dishes with some Southwestern elements will be offered.”

Noone said that the regional fl avors of the state will infl uence the menu: from Vietnamese-infl uenced cuisine from the Gulf Coast to Lebanese and Greek infl uences from the Mississippi Delta. Noone has recruited two excellent chefs from the Dallas area to help him achieve this, as well as have a full-service bar area, an oyster bar and ceviche bar. Ceviche is raw fi sh cooked with keylime juice, salt and various fl avorings.

The menu will offer a culinary delight like no other. For example, the Fish Tacos and Chips with Southern Pecan beer-battered catfi sh, jalapeño tarter, and salt and malt vinegar chips. The Broken Arrow Ranch Venison with Delta ground sweet potato polenta, bacon-braised green beans and Bourbon fi g glaze.

As for design, Noone said that much of the building’s original history can be seen throughout the restaurant. For instance, the building in the past was a former oyster bar and smokehouse butcher shop, and it housed Continental Leather and Dixie Marble. When customers dine at Parlor Market, they will see these past businesses’ designs from leather banquettes, a marble bar and marble countertops for the oyster bar, tables made from 1850’s Louisiana Cypress and even old butcher hooks that will be used for ladies to hang their purses on while dining.

A Jackson native, Noone had moved to Texas after graduating from Missisippi College. He graduated from Texas Culinary Academy in Austin, Texas, and also has a Masters in Italian Cuisine from Italian Culinary Institute in Piedmont, Italy. Noone has also worked with three chefs who are James Beard Award recipients.

Noone is very excited about his restaurant’s future and the fl avor Parlor Market will add to downtown Jackson’s renaissance. Make plans now to dine at Parlor Market by reservation only.

P A I D A D VE R T I S E M E N T

Craig Noone, Owner/Chef

Parlor Market will open for dinner and then this fall will extend their hours to service the lunch crowd. Dinner will be served Tuesday - Thursday from 5 to 10 p.m. and Saturday from 5 to 11 p.m.

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Mr. Announcement: “G-SPAN (Ghetto Science Public Affairs Network) presents the ‘Lord Have Mercy I’m Still Unemployed Center Summer Jobs Summit.’ Rev. Cletus, spiritual advisor and pastor of

Rev. Cletus Car Sales Church, is the guest motivational speaker.” Rev. Cletus: “Bless your broken hearts and tired souls. As I look around this room, I see desperate and anxious people enduring cycles of progress and uncertainty. All I can say to the unemployed is this: ‘Don’t allow joblessness to challenge your faith and patience. And when being unemployed is just too hard to bear, take a deep breath and pray the unemployed workers’ prayer.’ “Please repeat after me: “Our father, who is in heaven, this is a desperate plea: We need jobs; We need them now—on earth with a company that has decent benefi ts! Give us this day a successful second interview. Forgive our moans, gripes and complaints about how broke we are, as we forgive the employer who fi red us. And let us not be tempted to beg, borrow and steal from our working neighbors. But deliver us from becoming part of the 9 percent unemployment rate. For we will be grateful about having a job and not lavishly spend our hard earned money again. Amen!’ “I prayed this prayer when General Motors laid me off about 15 years ago. Now, I’m a car-selling pastor! “So, if you need an inexpensive vehicle to drive to your new job, come to Rev. Cletus Car Sales Church and ride off with a blessing.”

o p i n i n g , g r o u s i n g & p o n t i f i c a t i n gjfp op/ed

Sun Must Shine on Convention Hotel Deal

KEN STIGGERS

EDITORIAL

Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. dismayed the Jackson Free Press at the City Council work session Monday when he said the city was looking to en-ter into a possibly-fi nancial deal with TCI-MS to complete the stalled Capital City Center, but that the details would be discussed in closed

session at the Council meeting Tuesday (soon after this issue went to press). The city should not enter into any agreements that involve taxpayer money going into private coffers without a full vetting by the public, and taxpayers should have every opportunity to ask questions and object as needed. Local and state entities often abuse the privilege of executive session with the circular logic that they have private business to discuss behind closed doors, thus that is why they must close the doors. This isn’t good enough, and instances of public-private partnerships need the utmost sunshine to ensure that the taxpay-ers’ money is spent wisely. The mayor’s announcement was disturbing for other reasons that the Jack-son Free Press has expressed for several years. A convention center hotel is clearly needed in order to make the convention center a success: a problem we warned about years ago when we initially expressed concern about the convention center bond issue precisely because the taxpayers would likely end up footing the bill, or a chunk of it, for a convention center hotel. Another vital question is who does the hotel and what they bring to Jack-son. The named developer is TCI-MS, run by Mark Small, and we hear good things about him personally. However, TCI-MS is part of a very complicated web of LLCs and corporations that leads back to Dallas businessman Gene Phil-lips, who has been involved in some fashion in a number of notorious business situations over the years and is an adviser to TCI. We fi rst got curious about Phillips when then-Mayor Frank Melton tried to take one of our editors on a private plane to meet him. Alas, Melton fl ew away without the JFP editor, but motivated us to do some research. Suffi ce it to say, drama follows Mr. Phillips around. (See Lacey McLaughlin’s story on page 6.) Jackson needs a lot of things, but drama is not one of them. We’ve got enough of our own, and much of it is home grown. We know that Jackson now needs a convention-center hotel, and we want to see it happen. But not by any means necessary, and certainly not at the risk of the city getting involved in and derailed by any more drama, such as that which prevailed during the Frank Melton era. Should the city be considering such a move, we demand that all business be conducted in plain view of the public. We all need to be at this table.

E-mail letters to letters@jacksonfreepress.com, fax to 601-510-9019, or mail to P.O. Box 5067, Jackson, Miss., 39296. Include daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

Desperate Plea

OK, these name changes are starting to get ridiculous! Just in case some of you don’t know, the city of Jackson was named after Andrew Jack-son. A slave owner and supporter of slavery. If you are going to get offended by streets named after “racists,” go ahead and just change the name of the capital city.

—js1976

JS: That’s a talk-radio point, not an argu-ment. There’s no logic to the assertion that because Jackson is named after Andrew Jackson, it’s therefore inappropriate for someone to take offense at streets or buildings named after 20th-century segregationists inside the city of Jackson. Otherwise, you’re arguing that some improve-ment is no improvement at all.

—Todd Stauffer

Renaming a street is easy. Fixing the deep-seated social and economic problems that plague a street is much harder.

—Jeff Lucas

I hear you, Jeff, on the effi cacy of spending time changing symbols vs. doing the real work that the symbols, well, symbolize … Of course, the more we keep talking about it now, the quicker that time will come. And every statement a diverse group of people, such as on this website, makes about how back-ass all those racist symbols are, and then challenge back-ass thinking … the more the rest of the world will see that we’re not (all) like (our state) used to be.

—Donna Ladd

There is a difference between learning our history and celebrating symbols of racism. For instance, I think one of the reasons people can be cavalier about dismissing 20th-century segrega-tionists is that they have never learned about men like Bilbo and Vardaman. They don’t realize that these men openly, militantly advocated the public murder of African Americans. But learning about these men is differ-ent than naming streets after them or erecting statues in their honor. That is celebrating and honoring monstrous men. … People should learn about the Nazis, but I wouldn’t want to live on Hitler Street.

—Brian C. Johnson

This is ridiculous! If the street names offend some people, then fi ne, change them. But change them to A Street, B Street, C street, Avenue 1, Avenue 2, etc. so there will be NO possibility of offending anyone ... and no wasteful, resource-consuming, long drawn-out debate (which you know there will be) about what to rename the streets!

—The Eskimo

“Slavery of blacks in America: it happened, it was bad, it ended 150 years ago.” But it didn’t. It has never really ended. Only when the black population is socioeconomi-cally equal to the white population will I concede that point.

—DrumminD21311

Racist Names, Beware

CHATTERComments from www.jacksonfreepress.com

Those of us who understand educational theory can clearly see the foundations on which Lynn Stoddard’s “Educating for Human Greatness” (Peppertree

Press, 2010, $18.50) is based. None of the ideas are new; they are synthesized from many great thinkers of the past, but who listens to great thinkers these days? People either write them off as eccentric (if they’re rich) or crazy (if they’re poor). Stoddard weaves seven priorities—iden-tity, inquiry, interaction, initiative, imagina-tion, intuition and integrity—into six prin-ciples: supporting human diversity; drawing forth potential; respecting autonomy; invit-ing inquiry; supporting professionalism; and community action. He tells us that we should work through the current system to create schools that are inviting to our youth, schools that are meaningful, relevant and exciting to them. He encourages parents and teachers to stand for what is good and right for our children. Pie in the sky! Mr. Stoddard told me that he wants to put this book into the hands of every teacher, school administrator, parent and legislator. I don’t blame him. He has some really good ideas. He collaborated with world-renowned educators. The book even includes plans to put the ideas into action. If you are over 40, you probably went through the traditional pre-80’s school system. We hold on to our traditions. Heck! We went to those schools, and we turned out OK. Right? But since the early 1980s, business lead-ers blamed the schools for our economic downturns. Shortly after 1983, when the Na-tional Commission on Excellence in Educa-tion made public its report, “A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform,” things began to change dramatically. Business interests began to focus on the school. We no longer developed citizens; we began developing workers. Big business used modern promotional tools to condi-tion the American people to believe that schools are the cause of our nation’s woes, and argued for more rigorous curricula, more accountability, and a return to the basics to build a solid foundation for our children. Our children need to know the things that are important for business and future employment: to be able to read on grade level (whatever that means) and per-form complex math functions. So where did that take us? The ’90s were the beginning of the “standards movement” in our schools. With it, we saw increased emphasis on reading and math skills to increase our children’s perfor-mance on standardized tests. Also in that decade, we witnessed the highest juvenile arrest rate for violent crimes. Heroin and cocaine use among youth climbed almost 300 percent when compared to rates in the 1970s and 1980s; drug abuse for the Ameri-can youth jumped to 13 times the rate of 20 years before. Certainly this information is

evidence about how our “back to the ba-sics” emphasis did not work for our children. It sounds like rebellion to me; the harder we pushed our children into the mold, the more they rebelled. Stoddard has created a plan. Having been an administrator, he speaks “administrivia” (administrator talk). Maybe he can convince them. He also knows that our children des-perately need to fi nd their identity when they are young. Overemphasis on academics in preschool and kindergarten is robbing our children of initiative, inquiry and imagina-tion. Developmental theorists Erik Erickson and Jean Piaget told us that these attributes develop early in a child’s life. Do you think that the business interests are trying to kill these instincts before they bud, thinking that the people will be more docile and trainable if they are all alike? A fellow named Adolph Hitler tried that, and it almost worked. Social psychologist Lev Vygotsky taught that children learn though interaction with each other and with grown-ups. Through guided play, children learn academics but they also learn caring communication, cooperation and courtesy. As children grow and begin to accept life on life’s terms, Lawrence Kohlberg, who studied with Piaget, tells us that they de-velop a sense of morality and integrity if given the opportunity to discover self-responsibility along with society’s limitations. These scien-tists were not just blowing smoke. These are proven theories. These theories are not lim-ited to children in a few scattered educational research projects used by companies to sell their products or professors to get published for promotion. The theories are universally accepted developmental and learning truths. So, we know what is good and right for our children. Slowly, parents, grandparents and teach-ers will begin to see through the smoke screen created by the quite profi table testing com-panies. Already, we see that business needs government bailouts to survive. Teachers are being laid-off. Where is their bailout? Remember, many parents of our young-est citizens are under 40. They, too, are vic-tims of the post-80s standardized educational regime. Grandparents, I ask you to read Mr. Stoddard’s book and explain it to your chil-dren. It will take a lot of time, but we are protecting our future. I’m old. I will keep teaching, but I may not live to see the turn-around. One day you’ll be walking down the street, and some blue-berry fi lling will land on your head. That will be me eating my pie in the sky. Dr. B.L. Fish taught young children for more than 23 years. He is an associate professor at Jackson State University in the Department of Elementary and Early Childhood Education, specializing in emotional intelligence. He served as chairman of the Child Care Advisory Board for Mississippi from 2006 to 2010 and plays blues and jazz whenever possible.

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Pie in the Sky

B. L. FISH

Editor in Chief Donna LaddPublisher Todd Stauffer

EDITORIALManaging Editor Ronni Mott News Editor Lacey McLaughlinSenior Reporter Adam Lynch

Reporter Ward SchaeferEvents Editor Latasha Willis

Music Listings Editor Herman SnellAssistant to the Editor ShaWanda JacomeWriters Andi Agnew, Lisa Fontaine Bynum,

Rob Hamilton, Carl Gibson, Jackie Warren Tatum Anita Modak-Truran, Will Morgan, Larry Morrisey, Andy Muchin, Chris Nolen, Tom Ramsey, Doctor S, Ken Stiggers, Valerie Wells, Byron Wilkes, John Yargo

Editorial Interns Sarah Bush, Alexandra Dildy, Deanna Graves, Kalissia Veal

Consulting Editor JoAnne Prichard Morris

ART AND PHOTOGRAPHYEditorial Designer Kristin BrenemenAdvertising Designer Lydia Chadwick

Production Designer Christi VivarEditorial Cartoonist Chris Zuga

Photographers Tom Beck, Pat Butler, Josh Hailey, Kenya Hudson, Kate Medley,

Meredith Norwood, Jaro Vacek, Lizzie Wright Design Interns Ayatti Hatcher, Jessica Millis Photo Intern Wrijoya Roy, Jerrick SmithFounding Art Director Jimmy Mumford

SALES AND OPERATIONSSales Director Kimberly Griffin

Account Executive Randi Ashley Jackson Account Executive and

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Distribution Clint Dear, Nicole Finch, Aimee Lovell, Michael Jacome,

Brooke Jones, Steve PateFounding Ad Director Stephen Barnette

ONLINEWeb Producer Korey Harrion

CONTACT US:

The Jackson Free Press is the city’s award-winning, locally owned newsweekly, with 17,000 copies distributed in and around the Jackson metropolitan area every Thursday. The Jackson Free Press is free for pick-up by readers; one copy per person, please. First-class subscriptions are available for $100 per year for postage and handling.

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For information on these properties,call us at 601-982-8455 or

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About 10 minutes before Jasmine stabbed her boyfriend, William, he had her on the fl oor of her grandmother’s house, choking her to the point that she passed

out. It wasn’t the fi rst time he had attacked her in that way, but it would be the last, she said. The couple fought constantly, and after about eight months together, they moved into Jasmine’s grandmother’s vacant house in Rankin County after being evicted from an apartment because of their fi ghting. Both of them ended up in jail after one particularly ugly incident, and the court directed them to take anger-management classes. Jasmine lost her job due to one too many absences, and she asked her ex-husband to take care of their three children, at least temporarily.

About a month after moving into her grandmother’s vacant house in Rankin County, Jasmine and William started fi ghting one Sunday after coming home from church. “I was just so angry the whole day. Everything he was doing was just really making me upset,” she said, adding: “The Lord was really trying to tell me something. … I was miserable.” The next morning, Jasmine had made up her mind. She would pack up William’s stuff while he was at work. She’d had enough. “I was done,” she said, but William wasn’t. He attacked her before leaving for his job, pushing her to the fl oor and choking her until she blacked out. When she came to, it took her a minute to realize where she was, Jasmine said. She ran to the kitchen where she grabbed a “little steak knife,” and she shouted for Wil-

Most of the names of people and institutions have been changed to protect the identities of the individuals who shared their stories. The Batterer’s Intervention Program

The Batterer’s Intervention Program is designed to curb domestic vio-lence through coordinated community response. Based on the Duluth Model developed in 1980 in Duluth, Minn., the Center for Domestic Violence held the fi rst class for batterers Sept. 15, 2009. Currently, it is

the only such program in the state of Mississippi, and proceeds from the Jackson Free Press 2009 Chick Ball provided the seed money for initiating the program. Judges direct batterer’s—usually fi rst-time offenders—to attend the 24-week program, which is staffed by trained facilitators and uses a range of tools to teach offenders alternatives to coercive, controlling and abusive behavior in intimate re-lationships. Individuals who recognize a need for intervention can also sign up for the classes without a court order. The program works to ensure safety for the partners of the participants while also working to end domestic abuse by creating a culture of deterrence. To fi nd out more about the program, call 601-932-4198, or visit The Center for Domestic Violence website, www.msvcp.org. To fi nd out about the Jackson Free Press 2010 Chick Ball, scheduled for July 24, call ShaWanda Jacome at 601-362-6121 x16. If you are a victim of domestic violence and need help, call the 24-hour crisis hotline: 1-800-266-4198.

by Ronni MottIllustrations by Melissa Webster

liam to leave, just go. “If you touch me again,” she screamed, “you’ll be sorry.” “He jumped back like he was going to hit me,” she said, “and I already had the knife in my hand. … It happened so quickly. … It was like I was out of my body.” Jasmine had stabbed William in the ribs up behind his left arm. “Baby, I’m sorry,” she kept repeating, as she called 9-1-1 to get help. “I was so afraid. Lord knows, I’m not trying to kill this man. … All I could think about was my children.” She thinks that the police knew it was self-defense. She had told the dispatcher what took place. William, though, lied to the police about what happened, saying he had accidentally stabbed himself while they were wrestling on the bed, she said. The police didn’t buy his story. William was the injured party, and the police arrested Jasmine, charging her with domestic assault, while they took William to the hospital. While some women learn to cope with abuse by becoming submissive, or they try to manage the situation, Jasmine’s reaction was to fi ght back. And when women fi ght, they

tend to do so with weapons more often than men, who tend to use only their strength. “Victims of violence often retaliate and resist domination and battering by using force themselves,” states a 2002 paper from Praxis International, “Re-examining Battering: Are All Acts of Violence Against Intimate Partners the Same?” Non-profi t Praxis International is a research and training organization that works toward ending violence for women and children, based in Duluth, Minn. In the paper, the authors dub battering by victims “resistive/reactive” violence. The overwhelming majority of domestic abusers are men, but women batterers are no longer rare. Nine of the 118 Mississippians in the state’s only Batterer’s Intervention Pro-gram are women, and, unlike Jasmine, some of them are primary abusers, not just reacting to being victimized. “We try to work through the court system to make sure that women who are defending themselves aren’t charged the same as other perpetrators,” said Sandy Middleton, director of the Center for Vio-lence Prevention in Pearl, who brought the

intervention program to the Jackson area. The program operates in Hinds, Madison and Rankin counties. “In a home where you have a domestic-abuse situation,” she added, arresting a woman for defending herself is “just re-victimizing the victim.” On the other hand, “a lot of women become the aggressor seeking survival,” she said, citing the 2002 fi lm “Enough” with Jen-nifer Lopez as an extreme example of an abuse victim seeking revenge. “The more women are in places of leadership and the more we’re out in the work force, the more we’re going to see some power and control issues in women,” she added. Still, more than 85 percent of domestic-abuse victims are women, and most of the abusers are men, making up 83 percent of spouse murderers. Accurate statistics about non-lethal domestic violence are diffi cult to come by, as domestic violence is one of the most chronically under-reported crimes, ac-cording to the U.S. Department of Justice. And the National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that only about one-quarter of all physical assaults, one-fi fth of all rapes, and one-half of all stalkings perpetuated against women by their intimate partners are re-ported to the police. Minorities and the poor are over-represented in domestic-violence sta-tistics, probably because calling the police is a last resort for women with other resources. Due to concerted effort from many or-ganizations, women are more knowledgeable about getting protective orders and getting more of them faster, according to judges and court clerks, said Heather Wagner, director of the Domestic Violence Division in the state attorney general’s offi ce. And people are more aware of what domestic violence is, especially that it doesn’t always consist of physical violence. The Batterer’s Intervention Program is designed to get to abusers’ core issues, which revolve around power and control. Like rape, which is less about sex than it is about exerting control over another person, domestic violence is not about anger, and anger management programs have little effect on the problem. Each week, the intervention program touches on a different aspect of abusive behavior: intimidation; emotional abuse; isolation; minimizing, denying and blaming; coercion and threats; economic abuse; using children against a spouse; and using male privilege. Each of those facets can include physical or sexual violence. Participants share and interact about their experiences under

the guidance of trained facilitators, and they watch situational fi lms that demonstrate what each of the behaviors looks like. “They may not even realize it, but the male facilitator and the female facilitator are modeling appropriate, respectful relationships with each other in front of them every week for 24 weeks,” Middleton said. “A lot of guys have never seen a man really treat a woman with love and respect. They don’t see that. … They don’t recognize a healthy, caring male/female relationship. They don’t know what that is,” she said, “and they get to see that.”

‘I Did Damage Some Things’

Soft-spoken Casey, 27, and his wife of fi ve years, Amanda, argued a lot, he said, as he nervously popped a mini-Altoid every few minutes.

Ultimately, it was a judge’s decision that got him into the program, but it was a loud and destructive argument that put him in front of the judge. “I did damage some things,” he said. He broke a chair, and he threw food at his wife, using intimidation and threats. Casey is nearing the end of the 24-week Batterer’s Intervention Program, with about six weeks to go. At fi rst, he considered the program a waste of his time. It’s a common re-action: Most of the court-ordered participants initially believe they don’t belong there. The offense that got them into court wasn’t that serious, they say, and it’s all “just bullsh*t,” as Casey put it. It’s an attitude that comes from every participant in the beginning, Middleton said. “It’s completely across the board. If you’ll look at it, this type of individual doesn’t ac-cept responsibility for most things in his or her life. It’s a pattern of behavior for them to blame their actions on other people. They’ve made a lifetime of excuses for themselves and their own behavior by blaming it on some-body else. So naturally, they would come into the program thinking there wasn’t anything wrong with them,” she said. That way of thinking often disappears when the participant becomes involved in the process, however. “[T]he more I started coming, the more I started noticing signs of my aggression and anger,” Casey said. “I didn’t think past the end of my nose (before the program). I didn’t really think about the consequences of

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“Before the program, I couldn’t see it.”

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us arguing. All I thought about was what was happening right then and there, and how I was feeling.” He remembered a class where the facilitators asked the participants whether they treated people fair. After giving it some thought, he realized that he didn’t. Fair would be treating them how he wanted to be treated himself. Instead, he said: “I treat people how I think they should be treated. To treat people fair is hard.” At fi rst, Jasmine couldn’t understand why she had to go to the program either. “I was angry when I started coming. I was so angry,” she said. Her thinking was that “If he had never put his hands on me, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Jasmine, 37, is living with her mother and working full time to fi nd a new job. Her children live with their dad while she works to get her life back on track, but she sees them every day. “Now that I’m taking this class, I realize why I tolerated some of the things in these relationships I had,” she said. Slowly, she’s realizing how the events of her life have put her in the position she’s in. Jasmine was pleased and surprised to fi nd out her class was all ladies, she said. An anger-management class she took after a pre-vious arrest for domestic violence was mixed, men and women. “I would always be so uptight in that program,” Jasmine said. “Here, I feel free, free to express myself, because there are no men around. Men and women have a different point of view when it comes to domestic violence.”

Male Privilege

Paul, 40, is nearing the end of the program, with about three weeks left. He and his wife, Gloria, had separated for nearly a year and were

back together, trying to work things out with-out a lot of success. They were on the verge of calling it quits, sleeping in different rooms, not communicating. “We basically were living a separate life while living together,” he said. One night Gloria came into Paul’s room, waking him up. “I’m thinking that she wants to be inti-mate,” he said, and they began to kiss. Suddenly, she withdrew, starting what he called “a crazy outburst.” “I can’t trust you,” Gloria said, struggling

and kicking against him. “At fi rst, I didn’t know what was going on,” Paul said. “So I grabbed her.” Paul’s described the event in an unemo-tional, fl at tone of voice. He claims he didn’t hurt her, but whatever happened that night, it was frightening enough for Gloria to call the police, who strongly suggested to Paul that he leave the apartment, which he did. The next day Gloria fi led a domestic-assault charge against him and took out a restraining order. “I’m not saying I didn’t do things along the way,” he says. “Since I’ve been in the pro-gram, I’ve learned some (abusive) behaviors that I had.” Learning to take responsibility for their actions is integral to the success of the Batter-

er’s Intervention Program, Middleton said. For abusers in mid-life or later, it’s especially diffi cult to change. “They have to believe in it,” she said. “They have to see it and believe that ‘this is going to work for me; this is going to be a positive change in my life.” Like all the participants in the program, Paul also discovered that domestic abuse wasn’t just about physical beatings, something he said he had never done. “I never physically grabbed her or beat her up,” he said. “There’s verbal (abuse), there’s mental (abuse),” he said, adding, “I had some con-trol issues.” Paul tried to control his wife’s money, for example, giving her just enough to pay the bills and wanting to know where she spent every penny. His behavior is a classic symptom of abusive behavior, especially for sole breadwin-ners in a family. Economic abuse often goes beyond controlling how a partner spends money, but can also extend to preventing the partner from getting work, forcing her to beg for money and not letting her know about or have access to funds. Paul was in the U.S. Navy for years, where “most people had an aggressive tone,” he said. He and his wife probably spent more time apart than together during their 20 years of marriage. He would be at sea for months at a time, returning for a few weeks or a month before deploying once again, something that doubtless kept the marriage intact. While he was deployed, his wife ran the household and raised their three chil-dren. Trouble began when he got out of the military and tried to take the reins as head of the household. Where before time at home would almost be like a honeymoon, suddenly

“Men often blame their intoxication for the abuse, or use it as an excuse to use violence.

… [I]t is an excuse, not a cause. Taking away the alcohol does not stop the abuse.”

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he was a full-time husband and father and exerting his domination over the household. “The little things that I didn’t notice (about her) and that she didn’t notice about me really started to clash,” he said. He added that he doesn’t really get mad often, but is “explosive” when he does. He began to fi nd fault with the way Gloria was doing things, including how she disciplined their children and how she spent “his” money. “Before, she handled all the money. … Now, when I got out (of the Navy), I’d say, ‘we’re going to do this, and we’re going to do that,” Paul said. Paul seemed almost surprised that his wife put up resistance, eventually leaving him for nearly a year. Gloria had learned an inde-pendent, self-reliant existence, and couldn’t tolerate his “king of the castle” behavior. At fi rst, Paul didn’t feel that his actions justifi ed the punishment and expense of the program. (Participants must pay for the class-es to partially cover the cost of facilitating and administering the program: $25 for each class or $600 for all 24 weeks. Their fees, however, don’t cover the whole tab. The rest of the cost is paid through a combination of federal, state and non-governmental grants, and private donations.) Just a few weeks into the program, how-ever, Paul began to have a change of heart. “It turned for me when I could see my-self in a situation. That was a turning point. I think it was about two or three weeks into it. I really realized that there were some areas I need to work on,” he said. The way the program is designed, par-ticipants who share their experiences help others who might have had the same type of encounter, and facilitators encourage every-one to share. “I might have an issue going on that (another participant) might have already ex-perienced or gone through. He could give me some insight,” Paul said. “Those experiences come from people of all ages and races.”

Using Intimidation

Marty, 29, considers his situa-tion unique. He was trying to end a relationship, he said, and his girlfriend wanted his

cell phone, which she had given him as a gift. Like most people, he had private numbers and other information on the phone he didn’t want anyone else—especially her—to access. “She tried to take the cell phone, and I kind of pushed her,” he said. “It was substan-tial enough to make her stumble, but I would say it wasn’t a push to hurt her.” At the time, Marty and his girlfriend were both employed as corrections offi cers. He worked as a K-9 offi cer, using dogs to search for contraband in prisons and halfway houses. He was also a linebacker in college, and at 5 foot 10 inches and 256 pounds, it’s easy to image how intimidating his heavily muscled physique alone could be. His girlfriend called the police who ar-

rested Marty, and the court ordered him into the Batterer’s Intervention Program. Today, Marty has completed the 24-week intervention program, but like the oth-ers, he didn’t think he deserved to be there at fi rst. “I just felt like I was being picked on,” he said. “But as class went on, I enjoyed going. It was a pleasure. “What turned the corner for me was being involved with people who knew what I was going through.” He was able to see himself in the others, he said, and felt they were there to help him, not look down on him. It surprised him how calm his instructors were, and how calm he became. Some of the instructors had gone through exactly the things he had, and had learned how to deal with life in other ways. “The different ways to handle the situ-ation got my attention,” he said. “Walking away, or talking it out, or the way you look at someone can actually be intimidating. I didn’t know that.” One of the methods used in the program is showing the participants short videos dem-onstrating different aspects of abusive behav-ior—“vignettes” Marty called them. “It was like looking in a mirror, some-

times. Like, standing over your partner and talking at her, instead of to her. I caught my-self doing that a lot,” he said. “… Before the program, I couldn’t see it.” Middleton said that the participants complain about seeing too many videos; how-ever, there’s no denying their effectiveness. “The videos are what, ultimately, they make a connection with,” she said. “They re-alize it’s them on that video. … It’s like a dose of cold water for them realize, ‘that’s me.’” Casey called the videos “cheesy,” but, like Marty, he recognized many of his abusive

behaviors in them, like, “yelling, slamming stuff, minimizing” his wife’s concerns and not taking her seriously. Participants who don’t recognize them-selves in the videos are probably looking straight into their own worst sides, Casey said. “Most men are not aware of the behaviors that they’re doing,” he ventured. “… Ultimately, it’s up to the person. If you want to change, you’ll pay attention, soak some stuff in.” Through the program, Marty was also able to see his pattern of consistently blaming someone else for his behavior, or making his partner feel stupid when she disagreed with him even over little things. Marty also used the Bible to get his way, another aspect of male privilege. “The man’s supposed to be the head of the house,” he said, once assuming that what that meant was that his way was the only way. “The Bible says that, but it doesn’t mean it like that. The man is the head of the house, but it doesn’t mean he controls every-thing.” He now sees that decision-making should be a shared activity, not that what the man says, goes. Before the program, Marty

wouldn’t allow his partner’s input into the simplest things, like the choice of a restaurant or a movie. “It was my choice,” he said. “It was never, ‘what do you want to see.’ It was ‘we’re seeing this.’ It was basically a controlling-like situation. I didn’t see anything wrong with it because I was caught up in ‘the man’s sup-posed to run everything.’” To this day, though, Marty isn’t clear how he came to that belief. Growing up, his mother ran everything. “I don’t know where I got that from,” he said. “I can see myself as a

better person (now). I don’t actually get mad any more,” he said. Marty also benefi tted from hearing other’s stories, enabling him to understand that he wasn’t the only person who reacted to life the way he did. It was an eye-opening experience. “One day, this guy, I’m telling you, ev-erything he said was exactly the stuff I did. It felt like I was sitting in a place and this guy was me, and I said, ‘Wow. He’s saying exactly what I need to be saying.’” Listening to someone else say the things in his own mind, Marty said he could see how wrong-headed the speaker was. “I wanted to say something,” he said, recalling the incident, “but I can’t because I do the same stuff.”

Breaking the Cycle

The fi rst day Jasmine met William they became a couple. “At fi rst, I was attracted to his looks,” she said, and they both

“fell in love at fi rst sight.” Soon, though, she discovered that he was full of lies. “He told me he was a college graduate; he told me he had real-estate property, even though I don’t care about all that,” she said. “I want a man that’s going to work; that’s independent; and that’s respectful. I want a God-fearing man, fi rst of all. And I thought that this was the type of person that he was. “I promise you, I felt it in my spirit the fi rst week that he was a freeloader, he was an alcoholic. I felt it, and I just could not let it go. Like I could save him.” But William didn’t want saving, and when Jasmine confronted him about his be-havior, he would choke her, put his knee in her stomach, squeeze her breasts and pull her hair. Her once long hair is short now, she said, because she became so stressed out her hair fell out in clumps. William told her she was too aggressive and headstrong, and Jasmine started doubt-ing herself, thinking: “Maybe I need to bow down a little bit. Maybe I am too aggressive. “I never had a man to help raise me, so I don’t know how to be submissive. All I do know is how to love somebody, and that’s what I want in return.” Despite the abuse, Jasmine, a divorced mother of three (two teens and a 10-year-old), stayed in the relationship for eight months. William didn’t have a job, and then Jasmine’s ex lost his job and wasn’t able to make his child-support payments. Jasmine fell behind on bills and lost her apartment. “I really had no help,” she said. She couldn’t let William go, she said. When he cried and begged to come back, she relented, even after losing her home, her job and her children. Jasmine’s story is typical of the cycle of domestic abuse, beginning with a push into quick involvement. William began lying to

Abuse, see page 18

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her from the beginning of the relationship. He belittled her and was physically violent, but manipulated her into accepting him back on more than one occasion, apologizing, cry-ing and begging until she let him come back. Middleton indicated that violent, abu-sive relationships can become co-dependent, just like other kinds of dysfunctional and self-destructive behaviors among partners. Domestic abuse can also manifest gen-erationally: Abused children often become abusive parents and partners. “I didn’t have a father around,” Jasmine said. “I went through some things in my childhood. I was molested when I was a child by my mom’s boyfriend.” It was a secret that she had kept to her-self, not even telling her mother until about fi ve years ago, but one she feels has infl uenced the kind of men she’s had in her life. Since her divorce in 2005, she’s had a string of abusive

relationships, culminating with William, and her ex-husband cheated on her. Of the four abusers interviewed for this story, three of them, including Jasmine, had abusive childhoods. Paul’s parents divorced when he was young. “My father, he was abusive,” he said. “I can remember as a child, 3 years old, there were incidents with (my mother),” he said, and his mother used corporal punishment on him.

“Sometimes it was a slap or a physical punch,” he said. Casey grew up with an older sister and a single mom, who had a decidedly corpo-ral style of punishment. “I got whooped with whatever was around,” he said. “I just thought that every kid got whooped.” His mother used “whatever was in reach,” he said: house shoes or a switch. Multiple violent relations are also com-mon among abusers. Jasmine had another relationship go sour when she discovered the man was freebasing, lacing his cigarettes with cocaine. “I confronted him about it and told him we were going to have to stop seeing each other for a while, and that he needed to get some help,” she said. She made calls on his behalf, looking for a treatment program, try-ing to help. “He never could make the time to go,” she said. Instead he showed up high at

Jasmine’s apartment one night and ended up kicking her in the face with his steel-toed workman’s boots as she sat in her car. “Right here,” she said, gingerly touch-ing the spot just under her right eye with her fi ngertips. She got away and called the police, who arrested the man for aggravated assault, but Jasmine isn’t clear what happened to him after that, and doesn’t seem particularly inter-ested in fi nding out. Abusers often blame drugs or alcohol

for their violent episodes, and about 50 percent of abusive relationships also have a history of alcohol and/or drug abuse, reports the Alabama Coalition Against Domestic Violence. “Men often blame their intoxication for the abuse, or use it as an excuse to use vio-lence. … [I]t is an excuse, not a cause,” states the organization’s website. “Taking away the alcohol does not stop the abuse.” Several months after her arrest for stab-bing William and about halfway through the 24-week intervention program, Jasmine said she sees these recent events as positive. “Honestly, that was the best thing that could’ve ever happened to me—for that to happen and for me to go to jail, because it just woke me up,” she said. “I couldn’t do anything but cry and pray, cry and pray. “I prayed for him,” she said, a bit of dis-belief in her voice. “I don’t want anything to happen to him,” she prayed. “I don’t want anything to happen to me. I just want to get back out here to my children. You don’t have to worry about me going back with this man. I’m done.” Jasmine pleaded guilty to simple assault on a plea bargain where she agreed to attend the Batterer’s Intervention Program in Pearl. When the judge ordered, “no contact,” she was more than happy to cooperate. “I can break the cycle,” she said. “I don’t want my children to be abused and I don’t want them to be abusive. What I need to do is come to reality, look at happened to me in my past, deal with it and know that it happened. I can’t change it. Accept it and move past it, and not blame anybody else.”

A New Day

All the participants fi nd that the Batterer’s Intervention Program is touching on other areas of their lives, not just their relationships

with spouses. Marty feels that the program will have a lasting affect on his life. As he relates the circumstances of his current relationship, there’s a hint of amazement in his voice. Since completing the class, Marty re-established a relationship from his past that he character-ized as “different as night and day” from the way things used to be. “We talk; we have fun now. I involve her in a lot of stuff now,” he said, asking her what she wants and soliciting her opinion instead of controlling every situation. “I’m not saying I’m perfect, but it has made me a better part-ner, because I try my best to do whatever she asks me,” he said. It took a bit of getting used to for his partner, though, who knew him before the program. At fi rst, she was afraid to ask for what she needed. “Now we just sit down and talk,” Marty said. “I want to please her.” It’s a method he learned in the program, where all participants are encouraged to speak up and tell the others what’s going on.

“As you open up, they open up,” Marty said. He added that he’s also learned a new defi nition of intimacy. “I never knew a hug could be intimate, or a kiss, or just having an intimate conversa-tion,” he said. Casey and Amanda are trying to work it out together. “It has its ups and downs,” he said of their relationship. Since the start of the program, Casey is experiencing a renewed affection for his wife, something that he fi nds surprising. “I’m starting to have the same feelings about her now as when we fi rst got together. We’re really enjoying each other’s time, even though we’ve had some disagreements since the program started,” he said. “… I’ve defi -nitely noticed a change in our relationship.” He sees now that what people told him prior to his arrest—walk away, it’s not worth it—is exactly right. “I wasn’t in a position where I could listen,” Casey said. “Even if I heard what they were saying, I couldn’t comprehend it. … When people are in that situation, they’re selfi sh.” Casey added that communication is key. “If you’re both talking, there’s no reason to get upset and start punching and kicking, if you’re really talking about it,” he said. Paul, who is attending classes at Holmes Community College and working full time, sees that the program has especially infl u-enced his relationship with his children, two of whom are still in elementary school. They are surprised by his newfound ability to re-spond to their needs instead of only thinking about his own. Their dad now hears them, and they want to be with him. “They see me differently now. … I wasn’t engaging them before. I would work, come home and when they saw me again, I was going out the door. It was always, ‘sit down; be quiet; don’t bother me right now.’ But now, I’m interacting with them. “With the oldest one, it’s like day and night,” he said of his daughter, who is col-lege-aged. “Before, we were like two ships passing in the dark. That’s how we were. If I didn’t see her, she didn’t see me. Now, she’ll call and text me.” His daughter, he recently learned, is pregnant, so Paul is going to be a grandfa-ther for the fi rst time. He’s been helping her out, taking her to doctor’s appointments, where before he probably wouldn’t have been so generous. “I probably would have been fussing, yeah, I probably would be,” he said. “… The night she told me, I didn’t get bent out of shape. I sat down and I listened to her. And then we started thinking about things we needed to be doing from that point. I didn’t explode on her. I didn’t tell her, ‘Oh you’re stupid; you made a mistake; what are you doing.’ … I think (the program) helped me out there. “Me and her, we’ve had some bad times,” he admits.

Abuse, from page 17

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At this point, he isn’t holding out a lot of hope for the marriage. “I love her. I miss my family. But, no,” he doesn’t think he and Gloria will get back together, he said. Paul and Casey believe that their spous-es would benefi t from going through the program. It’s not enough, they said, when only one partner goes through such an ex-perience, and some relationships aren’t able to weather the changes. But the Batterer’s Intervention Program isn’t designed to be marriage therapy. “They couldn’t make the strides that they do with their wives and girlfriends in the room. … They wouldn’t bare that much of

themselves,” Middleton said. “We’re not about restoring relation-ships,” she continued. “We just want to stop the violence.”

‘It’s Been Good’

Paul seems a little uneasy addressing how he would keep his new skills intact after the end of the program. He said he’s going to keep himself

focused and centered on his college courses, working toward a nursing degree. “I think I will be OK. I’ve only been going (to the Batterer’s Intervention Program classes) once a week, but this has been con-stantly on my mind,” he said. “I’m still living it. We’re still separated … but neither one of us is talking about divorce. … To be honest with you, I’m torn. I’m afraid if I go back, she’s got this ace in the hole. … I don’t want to live like that. I don’t want to feel like I’m under the gun.” Nevertheless, Paul said confi dently that he would share what he learned in the pro-gram with others, not by telling that they’re wrong, but by encouraging them to look at their behavior. “For me, it’s been good. … I’ve learned a lot,” he said. Marty can now see controlling behavior among his family and friends. He has an un-cle, he said, who is extremely controlling and friends who display the same type of behavior he once did. Since taking the class, he has been disas-sociating himself from those people, or trying to have them see how their attitudes and ac-tions are poisoning their relationships. Some of his friends are actually seeking Marty out for his advice, a situation he fi nds mutually supportive.

“I have someone to talk to, too,” he said. Some of the blame for the prevalence of domestic violence has to go to the main-stream media, Marty said, who “advertise” violence to make money. “It’s entertainment,” he said, and women, especially, aren’t given the information they need to change their circumstances. Relating an incidence where a woman friend refused to report her abuser, he said: “I think she’s afraid, but she’s (also) brainwashed” into passivity. Once a happy, vital young woman, today, she’s isolated, her abuser controlling every part of her life. “Her friends don’t come around anymore because they feel she’s stu-

pid,” he said. “She doesn’t go anywhere now. She just stays at home. “I wish they’d open the program to peo-ple who aren’t forced to go in, have it open to everybody. … Sometimes I just feel that men need someone to talk to on their level. That’s where the class helped me,” Marty said. “… There wasn’t anyone in the class that didn’t do nothing to get there.” Middleton said the program is open to “volunteers,” men and women who rec-ognized their need for help before they get into real trouble, and she is also looking for ways to extend it to include support after participants complete the program. To date, the Batterer’s Intervention Program boasts a zero recidivism rate. “They can always come back; we tell them that … just to keep it fresh in their minds,” she said. Jasmine is looking forward to working again, getting her children back and then go-ing back to school. She’s a caregiver by nature, she said, and wants to get a nursing degree. She’s also looking forward to having a grown-up relationship with a grown-up man who treats her with respect and takes responsibility for his life. “I’m still trying to fi gure it out,” Jasmine says. “Know what I’m saying? I’m still trying to fi gure out why my actions are the way that they are. But I do know now that when a man hits me, that’s not love. I know that he’s going to do it again.” After about 10 weeks in the program she already knows to disengage from arguments, and has seen how effective it can be. “It’s making me a better person,” she said, and she isn’t afraid to be on her own any more. “You can’t save a person that doesn’t want to be saved,” she said, “I’m not going to let anyone control my life again.”

“We’re not about restoring relationships. We just want to stop the violence.” —Sandy Middleton, director of

The Center for Violence PreventionPrecise Research CentersTelephone: 601-420-5810

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by Casey Purvisread more Body&Soul stories and the blog at jacksonfreepress.com

This Thing Called Cholesterol

When you hear the word “well-ness,” what pops into your mind? Glowing health? Energy and vitality? A rich spiritual life? Less

stress and more joy? Wellness is all that, of course, and more. It is the conscious pur-suit of a balanced, healthy life as opposed to just curing what’s wrong when you’re sick. At the Jackson Free Press, we’re com-mitted to not only talk the talk about wellness, but also to walk the walk. It means that we’ve challenged ourselves to go public with our wellness goals, which include body stuff, of course, but also goals for healthy minds and spirits, because it’s all connected. We challenge you to join us on our 12-week Road to Wellness. Follow our progress on these pages every couple weeks, and daily on our Road to Wellness blog site at jfpwellness.com.

Kristin Brenemen editorial designer• Go back to cutting out processed sugars

from my diet. I felt better when I did this regularly. High fructose corn syrup is in everything.

• Cholesterol and high blood pressure run in the family. I plan to look into some dietary changes that will help prevent this.

• I’m fairly certain humans need to be more hydrated than I am. Drinking more water is a necessary change.

• Cut back on my face-in-screen time when I’m at home. I see a computer screen enough when I’m at work.

• Actively read more. It’s always been a great stress reliever/unwinding meth-od and I just don’t fi nd the time to read like I’d like.

Lydia Chadwick advertising designer

• Exercise at least 30 minutes a day

• Remove red meat from my diet

• Eat more fruits and vegetables • Stay away from saturated fat, transfat and

triglycerides.

Natalie Collier BOOM Jackson associ-ate editor• Go to yoga at least once per week. I once

prided myself on my fl exibility. I don’t like wondering, “Is this how 30-year-old stiff-ness feels?”

• Get my eyes examined and get new contacts and glasses. Something has changed, and this probably contributes to some of my headaches.

• Lose weight. Though I’m a healthy fat per-son, I’m vain and the song is about me.

• Sleep at least seven hours each night. • Read or write at least 30 minutes per day

(not work-related).

Kimberly Griffi n sales director• Go to yoga once a week (I’m a bit of a gym

junkie) • Buy a new mattress. I suspect mine contrib-

utes to my aches and pains. I need some-thing that’s sag proof.

• Replenish my supplements quickly when they run out.

• Get my vitamin D level checked again. It was low back in November. I’ve been taking supplements.

• Cut my caffeine. This either means no tea at lunch or decaf coffee/coke in the morning or both.

When I casually mentioned to my brother that I was doing a column on cholesterol, his response was, “Oh! Cholesterol’s delicious!” I can’t say I was shocked by his retort. One only

needs to avail oneself of all the food-porn sites on the Internet to ascertain that many people share his sentiments. Cholesterol is a complex subject, and this column should not take the place of medical advice or treatment. It’s impossible to cover more than the basics here. Also, before embarking on any type of cholesterol-lowering program, exercise regimen, or before taking any herbal supplements, please consult a physician. It’s important to have some cholesterol in the body. Cholesterol naturally occurs in our cells and performs certain vital functions. The problem arises when we have too much cholesterol on board, especially the “bad” kind. Cholesterol travels the bloodstream attached to proteins, called lipoproteins. There are three types of proteins, but two are most relevant: high-density lipoproteins (HDL), and low-density lipoproteins (LDL). LDLs carry cholesterol through the body and deliver it to various organs and tissues. If your body has too much LDL—so-called “bad” cholesterol—it keeps circulating in the bloodstream. Over time, this circulating LDL gets small-er, changes composition, and sneaks into blood-vessel walls to form plaque, which can harden and build up to obstruct blood fl ow inside the blood vessel. This can lead to coronary artery disease. HDLs, “good” cholesterols, pick up excess cholesterol in the bloodstream and take it to the liver for the body to dispose of. HDLs may also have anti-oxidant, anti-infl ammatory and anti-clotting properties. Doctors generally recommended that you keep your total cholesterol level below 200. Numerous factors can af-

fect cholesterol levels, including a diet high in saturated fats, being overweight, smoking, having a sedentary lifestyle, and your age and gender. Prior to menopause, women generally have lower cholesterol levels than men. Poorly controlled dia-betes can raise cholesterol levels, as can certain medications. Elevated cholesterol can run in families. The American Heart Association recommends that anyone over 20 years of age should have a cholesterol level check at least every fi ve years. Lots of options exist to control cholesterol. Exercise can increase HDL levels in some people. Moderate daily exercise can also help maintain weight and control diabetes and high blood pressure. Yoga is great. Walking is cheap. Gyms are everywhere. It’s important to get moving and do something you’ll enjoy, and even moderate activity can make a positive difference. If you haven’t exercised in a while, consult your doctor about safely increasing your activity level. The American Heart Association recommends that you limit your daily cholesterol intake to less than 300 milligrams, or less than 200 milligrams if you already have a history of heart disease. If you have high cholesterol, your doctor may prescribe a cholesterol-lowering drug. It’s important to keep

follow-up appointments with your doctor, as he or she will likely be monitoring your cholesterol and liver function. Some foods and herbal remedies may be as benefi cial as drugs, or can work with drugs to balance your cholesterol levels. Overall, learn to check food labels and avoid foods high in saturated fat. Foods high in omega-3 fatty acids, like fi sh, fl axseeds, olive oil and some nuts, can be benefi cial. Several other foods and herbal supplements may also be benefi cial. Experts think that plant sterols work by competing with dietary cholesterol for absorption. WebMD mentions red yeast rice, ginger, turmeric, artichoke leaf extract, yarrow and holy basil. In addition to these herbals, soluble fi ber found in plant foods like oat bran, fl ax seed, apples, lentils, and beans are benefi cial. Soy-based proteins like tofu, soymilk, and edamame have been shown to help prevent heart disease. The website eMedicinal lists several herbal recommenda-tions from Dr. Gordon Chang. Guggal is an extract of the Indian herb Commiphora mukul and has been shown to reduce total cholesterol as well as LDLs. Niacin is also effec-tive, but can be hard on the liver and can cause fl ushing of the skin; inositol hexanicotinate is chemically similar to niacin and may not have the side effects associated with the use of niacin. Policosanol and garlic may lower cholesterol. Men should be aware that soy can increase estrogen levels. Before taking any herbal supplement, consult your doc-tor. Herbals also have side effects and can interact with other medications you may be taking. So respect them as you would any other drug. MayoClinic.com and WebMD (www.webmd.com) are good sources of detailed information on cholesterol. The American Heart Association (www.americanheart.org), and The Cleveland Clinic Department of Nutrition and The Cleveland Clinic Heart Center (my.clevelandclinic.org) also provide good information.

continued on page 22

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Ashley Jackson account executive• Go to the gym at least three

times a week and yoga once a week. (I get winded walking up the stairs, and I am also having joint problems.)

• Drink more water and take vitamins.• Get more sleep.• Eat healthier meals.

ShaWanda Jacome assistant to the editor • Lower my cholesterol. • Actively look for a new church. I miss going

to church.• Exercise for 30-60 minutes twice a week.• Stay on top of taking my meds and supple-

ments everyday. • Cut back TV watching. The goal is no TV

after 9 p.m. on weekdays for me and less on the weekends me and my son.

Donna Ladd editor-in-chief • Drink more good, fi ltered water—at least 8

big glasses a day. • Make smoothies most mornings to get fruit,

soy, protein powder and fl ax all at once! • Leave offi ce by 7 p.m. every night, latest. • Yoga class at least two times a week; a long

walk, bike ride or gym at least three times a week. Short daily walks.

• Eat more greens and other cholesterol-lower-ing foods.

• Grow herbs in pots on my deck. • Go to bed in time to sleep at least seven

hours, preferably eight.• Take vitamins twice daily. • Always have fresh fl owers around. • Process e-mail, etc., regularly to keep stress

down.• Meditate regularly.

Adam Lynch reporter • Sign up with physical thera-

pist May 29 for comprehen-sive exercise regimen sensitive to back disorders.

• Lose another 10 pounds be-fore July.

• Run with dog Oscar and terrorize Ridgeland joggers on weekends.

• Remove high fructose corn syrup from diet.• Step up daily weight-lifting regimen from

60-80 reps a day to 80-100.

Lacey McLaughlin news editor • Lose 10 pounds by Aug. 1. • Go to the Jackson Zen dojo for meditation at

least once a month. • Ride my bike to work at least three times a

week. • Cut down on meat—only two to three

meals per week.• Keep up with routine doctor’s appoint-

ments.

Ronni Mott managing editor• Drink more water: work up to eight glasses

a day.

• Eat healthier: Cut down on fried food, sugar and meat; eat more veggies.

• Take a yoga class two to three times a week (Teaching doesn’t count!)

• Walk. Get up a half-hour earlier and get out there.

• Get out of the offi ce by 7 p.m. at least three days a week.

• Re-establish meditation practice; meditate 15 minutes a day, minimum.

• Say please and thank you at every opportu-nity; smile.

• Find one thing to be grateful for before going to sleep every night.

• Use my personal days.

Adam Perry distribution manager, ac-count executive

• Only one cup of coffee per day, even if I’m playing a gig.

• Eat two pieces of fruit every-day.

• Try to get eight hours of sleep a night at least three nights a week.

• Drink at least 4 cups of water everyday. • Put in for two vacation days—I know this

seems like nothing but I’ve been saying I’m going to do this for three months and haven’t done it, yet.

Ward Schaefer reporter • Meditate at least 10 minutes per day, every

day. • No Internet use after 10 p.m. • Play sports at least twice a week; exercise at

least 30 minutes all other days. • Replace afternoon cup of coffee with tea (I

get antsy and have trouble falling asleep if that coffee happens after 2 p.m.)

• Write at least one long letter/e-mail to friends/family a week.

Todd Stauffer publisher• Exercise at least six days a week, at least 30

minutes per day.• Cut out all fried chips (chips and salsa, po-

tato chips, nachos) ... except for one “free” day a week to enjoy my TexMex!

• Get to bed earlier—enough to ensure eight hours of sleep per day,

• Cut back on coffee and switch to water in the afternoon.

• Eat more fruit (smoothies) and have fruit on hand for snacking.

Christi Vivar production designer• Bike riding twice a week. • Drink more water.• Check e-mail more often.

Latasha Willis events editor• Remember to stretch when I get up in the morning. • Write a prayer every day. • Do deep breathing exercises fi ve minutes a day.

• Spend 15 minutes outdoors each day. • Take up a new relaxing hobby.

from page 21

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My parents are master gardeners. Growing up, organically grown and composted vegetables, fruits, fl owers and herbs were an integral part of summer. We even had

chickens and goats for a period of time. Despite that, I learned next to nothing from them. I

tried to make a garden several years ago to no avail. It’s not that plants perish in my wake, but I promise you, I knew zilch about the business of growing my own food. But given an increasing global awareness about self-reliance, it seemed beyond high time to drive a stake into the heart of gardening. With generous help from my friend Will Myrick, I created my fi rst garden.

Novice to novice, here’s a basic how to.

1. Buy seeds or seedlings. Keep in mind where you are in the season. Seeds are considerably cheaper, but they’re not as dependable as seedlings for beginners. Seed-lings provide a jumpstart. Also consider how much room you have to make a garden, because you’ll need to accom-modate not just for the plants but also for space in between. Fortunately, I had Will’s skill on my side, so we managed to eyeball the ratio.

2. Pick a place to plot. Whether it’s a raised bed or in the ground, it must get about six to eight hours of direct sunlight. The only other advice I can give about that is to use Feng Shui, even in your yard, roof top (for raised beds), or wherever you create your garden. You can use your senses to choose the right spot. Also, plant according to where the sun rises in your yard. Research the sunlight movement, as this will help you determine where the sunlight and shade will hit your yard at different times of the day and year.

3. Till the ground. First, use a shovel to remove the layer of grass. We used a power tiller. Will was the muscle behind the machine, which he pushed in neat rows like a hard-core lawn mower, until the desired plot size was at-tained. You can do the whole thing manually with a shovel, too. It will take much longer but you can do it. Churn at least 6 inches to 7 inches deep.

4. De-Weed. This is where the fun begins if you don’t get the grass out prior to tilling (which we didn’t)—if you like getting dirty, that is. You will have to get in there and pick out as many weeds and clumps of grass as you can. The pros say this is good for composting, so I recommend you look into that. In our case, we simply threw it all off to the side.

5. Add fertilizer. What kind you add, if any at all, depends on the condition of the soil. Even if the soil is dark brown and rich, you might want to add something. We bought two bags of manure and humus fertilizer, and shoveled it in with the loosened soil to give it extra oomph, ensuring growth.

6. Make rows. Use a shovel, or just get in there and use your hands to create the shape of your garden. We did both. You want the rows (mounds the length or width of the garden) to be about 12 inches thick, with about a 12-inch space between each. Also, plant according to where the sun rises in your yard.

7. Plant. Well, hallelujah! It’s fi nally time to put the babies in the ground. Dig holes at least 3 inches deep, and at least a foot apart. Be sure to keep track of where everything is. We went to a local school-supply store and found multi-shaped labels. We made sections, keeping the herbs clustered togeth-er, for example. We also planted marigolds throughout the rows; they act as a natural insect repellent, among other uses.

8. Water. Give the garden its fi rst shower when the sun isn’t shining straight down on it. It’s important to conserve water, so if you can get away with watering every other day, that’s best. Water for about 15 minutes, before or after the garden is out of direct sun. A rain dance every now and then comes in handy, too.

Optional:

9. Border. If you want to make a border, consider re-us-ing materials, like trashed objects. We used old (albeit likely asbestos-fi lled) roof panels that had been sitting on the side of the house.

10. Accoutrements.Dressing up a garden is a fun way to add whimsy and show your creativity. We added a little boy donning a feather headdress to oversee the growth operations. And what garden would be com-plete without a bit of magic? In our case, magic was found in a tiny lantern discarded in a nearby alley.

11. Map & Grow Chart. If you haven’t made labels, this is a great way to keep track of where things are and when you can expect your edibles to mature and meet your mouth.

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by Charlotte Blom

DIY: Creating a Garden

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In Marrakech, Morocco, Daniel Guaqueta captured video footage of snake charmers as they hypnotized snakes by playing an instrument called a Pungi. As the camera starts rolling, one of the snake charmers unex-

pectedly turns and dangles a viper inches away from his new bride, Megan Storm’s, face. She remains calm and doesn’t move as the snake makes its way around her neck, and then does the same to Guaqueta. The snake charmer claims it’s a ritual for good luck and demands $60.

“Megan and I both like to explore and go on adven-tures,” Guaqueta says. “It’s pretty scary to think about the snake incident, and I realized how crazy it was after the fact. Think about it: We are on our honeymoon. Most couples go to Jamaica or the Bahamas.”

The Jackson couple got married Jan. 30 and then went on a honeymoon reminiscent of the television show “Amazing Race,” taking 11 fl ights over the course of 18 days throughout Europe where they traveled to Morocco, Spain, Italy, France, Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

Honeymoon highlights included attending the Carni-val of Venice, sledding in Switzerland, and eating crepes in France. Guaqueta admits that trekking around Europe wasn’t always the most relaxing experience. He suffered from allergies and couldn’t fi nd proper medication, and the couple had to navigate through foreign cities where they didn’t speak the lan-guage. Despite the challenges, Guaqueta says the honeymoon strengthened the couple’s relationship.

“In the end, none of the setbacks matter because you are spending time with someone you love,” he says. “You are there to learn and grow. It was trying at times, but overall it was a really great experience because now we know we can commu-nicate and deal with stress better.”

Guaqueta, 33, and Storm, 23, met in 2005 in Fondren

while Guaqueta was testing out his own crepe stand, a business the young entrepreneur was pursuing at the time. Guaqueta, now the founder of his own music production company, Gua-queta Productions, invited Storm to his radio show, “Missis-sippi Happening,” and the two started dating soon after. “At the time, I was thinking about doing crepes instead of music, but thank God I was doing that because that’s how I met Megan,” he says. The couple shares similar interests, but also balances each other with their differences. Guaqueta is a music enthusiast who appears weekly on his radio show, and is a member of the local bands Storage 24, Hunter Gibson and Questions in Dia-lect. He says he prefers to be front-and-center, while Storm is more thoughtful, quiet and easy-going. Megan has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Millsaps College and a master’s in biological science from Mississippi College. She works as a researcher at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and is currently applying for medical school to get her doctorate. Guaqueta was born in Hattiesburg, and grew up in Bogota, Colombia as the oldest of four sons. Storm grew up in Jackson and is the second youngest of nine children. They both share a love and interest of different cultures and customs.

Guaqueta says they both knew early into the relationship that they would eventually get married but a trip to Colom-bia in summer 2009 made that goal a reality. “I realized two months into the relationship that she was the one,” Guaqueta says. “I could see how sweet and wonderful and open she was. She wasn’t judgmental, and she supported me. I knew this was the person I wanted to be around my whole life.”

During their Colombia trip, Storm met Guaqueta’s ex-tended family and picked out an emerald engagement ring. Guaqueta says emerald symbolizes the connection to Colom-bia and his family.

“It was important for her to see how much family means to me,” he says. “The trip was amazing. It was like she was a member of the family. She spoke Spanish and got along with everyone. We both knew that was it.”

When they returned to the states, they went on a vaca-tion with Storm’s family to Branson, Mo., where Guaqueta offi cially proposed. How he proposed remains a secret, but later that night when they went to the 12 Irish Tenors concert, Guaqueta managed to get on stage in front of 400 people and announce their engagement.

The couple was married at Crossgates United Methodist Church in Brandon and afterward held a reception at the Old Capitol Inn for 200 of their family and friends. As a producer, Guaqueta wanted to create an environment where every-one—young and old—could dance. Guaqueta, also a deejay, has played his share of weddings and wanted something spe-cial so he worked with DJ 5150 and created a playlist with a wide range of music including Latin, electronic, Texas swing and jazz. DJ 5150 also incorporated lasers, a smoke machine and a bubble machine creating a club-like environment.

Guaqueta’s dad, Ricardo Guaqueta, a horticulturist in Miami, provided unique fl oral arrangements made of white, purple and pink calla lilies, hydrangeas, 400 white roses, orien-tal lilies, bear grass and horsetails. Old Capitol Inn Chef Bruce Cain created an eclectic array of food that included sushi, sugar cane roasted pork loins, crawfi sh, beignets, fried catfi sh, mufalettas and jambalaya.

Since their nupitals, the couple, who live in Fondren, say

the adjustment to married life has been a smooth transition. “Married life is awesome,” Guaqueta says. “It’s a cool feeling that the two of you are going toward the same goals together. We have decided to build a family and a foundation together. … And, best of all, she makes bread.” To see videos and photos from the couple’s honeymoon, visit jacksonfreepress.com.

Bride Design7951 NW 64th St., Miami, Fla.

305-433-2114ricardo@guaqueta.com

www.guaqueta.com

Flowers by Mary 395 Crossgates Blvd., Brandon

601-825-0071

Cakes by Iris601-540-6347

iris@cakesbyiris.comwww.cakesbyiris.com

The Cake Shoppe601-932-2914

Jengsand@bellsouth.net

Molly Gee feather hair pieced worn by bridesmaidsare sold locally at:Alex and Lele

1481 Canton Mart Road601-206-7720

alexandlele.bigcartel.com and

Libby Story120 W. Jackson St., Ridgeland

601-717-3300www.libbystory.com

Photography: Josh Hailey Studio2906 N. State St.601-214-2068

josh@joshhaileystudio.comwww.joshhaileyphotography.com

Smart Planning: Megan planned the entire honeymoon on a budget of $3,000 by comparing hotel rates and booking tickets in advance. She used hotels.com and bookit.com, and found hotel rooms close to main attractions to cut down on travel costs. The couple made sandwiches whenever possible instead of dining out.

by Lacey McLaughlin

Daniel Guaqueta and Megan Storm

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Photo byHull Portraits

Owner - Dani Mitchell Turk,featured on the Food Network’s

Ultimate Recipe Showdown

4950 Old Canton Road Jackson, MS 39211

Phone: 601-991-2253

Cakes and Cupcakesfor ALL Occasions!

Jackson’s NewestEvent Venue

Corporate • WeddingsChristmas parties • No Event too large or small

Call Wendy Putt601.966.4518

627 E Silas Brown

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Candy’s Confections, located in the Old Fannin Mart in Brandon, is a haven for sweet teeth. The store is home to cakes, fi ne chocolates, cook-

ies and other baked goods, rows of bulk candies, such as jellybeans, and a “candy bar” with numerous choices for (non-alco-holic) candy-inspired drinks. With its lime- green walls and brightly colored accents, Candy’s Confections could make anyone feel like a child again.

Storeowner and baker Jim Stewart, 54, an Ohio native, has a jolly sense of humor. His passion for baking confections is evi-dent through his dedication to the quality of work he produces.

Tell me a little about your store.We are a very unique entity in that we

are a candy store, a cake bakery, we carry a line of fi ne chocolates (and) gift items. We also do birthday parties on site for kids. We do some catering. We do a lot of baked goods that are for sale daily. So (we’re) a pretty diverse situation for a retail shop. We’re not just a bakery; we dabble in a little of everything if it’s a confectionery.

How did you fi rst get interesting in baking, and in this line of work specifi cally?

I’ve been cooking for probably 40 or 45 years. It started as a necessity. I spent some time in the restaurant business in the ’70s and ’80s, and stumbled into this location. We came in July 1st of ’07, took it over and have been going at it ever since. It was just a neat concept. We came in and saw what the poten-tial was. It was a great set up—it just had to be stocked up with someone to own it. I had been looking for an opportunity to again have my own business, and it presented itself and I took advantage of it. We weren’t at he time really looking specifi cally for anything, really.

What type of work goes into making the cakes and candies?

There’s a lot of preparation, there’s a lot of planning. You have to know what’s coming up and be prepared for the holidays. All our cakes are custom made, for the most part, so we’ve got to get up early to make the cakes. We’ve also got to have a fair amount of lead time. We’re not a cash-and-carry set-up.

What’s the most unusual wedding cake you’ve ever made?

We did an Oriental-themed wedding cake once. It was three-tiered with cherry blossoms and Chinese writing. Groom’s cake is a different story, though. We’ve done 3-D armadillos and mallard ducks.

What is your favorite wedding cake you’ve made?

That’s a hard question. Probably one we did a couple years ago. It had alternating tiers of brown with large white polka dots and white with large brown polka dots with a contrasting ribbon around each tier.

What the difference between making a wedding cake and any other sort of cake?

Construction. You have to make sure that wedding cakes are level and that their stacks will hold each other up. You have to structure them inside and know where to structure them. If you stack six cakes on each other with no support, they’ll crush each other.

What else can you tell me about wedding cakes?

There are two different kinds. Stacked wedding cakes use different size layers of cake, while tiered wedding cakes have long separa-tors between the layers.

Wedding cakes aren’t as formal as they used to be. Some of them are airbrushed these

days, for example. It doesn’t matter how it looks, if it doesn’t taste good.

What is your favorite thing about your job? My favorite part is when we’ve done something for someone and they come in and we get the “ooh”s and “aah”s and “it’s beautiful”s and “we love it”s. Girls squeal and shriek and mamas cry. That’s when we’ve done it right; that’s the best part. Or when someone takes a bite of something we’ve made and you see their eyes roll back in their head because it’s so good.

What do you think makes your store unique?

Well, we’re not a chain. The people that work here care about the customers. It’s a very bright, colorful, enjoyable place, and that’s what we want to keep it. We like the personal involvement with the customers and know-ing who our customers are and developing that relationship over a period of time.

How did you get fi rst started with making cakes?

It was a hobby, basically. Just out of a love for doing it. I enjoy doing it. I enjoy creating stuff.

Have you always wanted to be a baker?

Not necessarily this specifi cally, but I’ve always wanted to be involved in the food ser-vice industry. This is the fun part of it. It’s a lot less stressful than operating a restaurant.

Did you go to culinary school?Chateau de Mawmaw. Most people

don’t get that. I have worked with people that have sixth-grade educations and could cook their tails off, do anything they want. I’ve also worked with some people that had all kinds of fi ve star diplomas from all different culi-nary schools that couldn’t boil water without screwing it up.

It comes to the passion for the food, a passion for the creative process.

shopkeep: Cakes to Squeal About

by Jesse Crow

The “candy bar” at Candy’s Confections, complete with its chalkboard menu, offers a variety of fl avors and delights to satisfy any sweet tooth young and old.

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1149 Old Fannin Road in BrandonShopkeep Owner: Jim Stewart

Open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday 601-992-96-23 or www.fatguycakes.com

Candy’s Confections

601-853-3299 • 398 Hwy. 51 • Ridgelandwww.villagebeads.com

Private classes available for Private classes available for

you and your bridal party to you and your bridal party to

make unique custom piecesmake unique custom pieces

for your special dayfor your special day

Private classes available for

you and your bridal party to

make unique custom pieces

for your special day

2475 Lakeland Drive, Flowood601.933.0074

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“Everywhere I travel for business, I am alwaysgiven compliments on my clothes. The Rogue knows

what my needs are and the staff always gives megreat recommendations.”

BO BOUNDS, host of “Out of Bounds”

Check us out on Facebook for upcoming events & special offers. Visit our Facebook Page

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Quality IngredientsExquisite Detail • Exclusive Flavors

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3013 N State Street in FondrenPhone and Fax #: 601.362.4628

Soup, Salad and Sandwiches

Now Serving Lunch!Now Serving Lunch!

Mon-Fri 11am-2:30pmMon-Fri 11am-2:30pm

(Call ahead or fax in your order)

Fondren NailsAnnouncing our First

Princesss PartyMay 22, 2010

8:00a.m. - 12:30p.m.

$15$15 MiniMiniManicureManicure

Polish on Nails & Toes,Make Up and More!

(Ages 4 and Up)Parent must be present

Must Pre-register!

Contact Kristy at 769-798-5197Contact Kristy at 769-798-5197

THE BISON THE BISON

BURGERBURGERA stampede of flavor served with Mayo, Lettuce,Tomato,

Crispy Onion Petals,BBQ Sauce & Pepper Jack.

Thursday, May 20

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Friday, May 21

THE MYLESTHE MYLES

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Open 7 daysa week!!

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601•364•9411

Check out our menu atCheck out our menu atwww.jacksonfreepress.com/www.jacksonfreepress.com/

menusmenus

Lunch or Dinner To Go!

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THURSDAY 5/20 Mission Mississippi’s Two & Two Restaurant Day is back. Go to lunch with someone of another ethnic back-ground and receive a 22-percent discount on your meal. Visit missionmississippi.org for a list of participating res-taurants. … Enjoy a “Creative Class” martini at the monthly JFP Lounge at Sal & Mookie’s Pi(e) Lounge (565 Taylor St.) from 6-10 p.m. Free admission; call 601-362-6121, ext. 11. … Come to the Congress Street Bar & Grill (120 N. Congress St.) at 6 p.m. for an introduction to Cathead Vodka, dinner specials and music by Joe Carroll. Free ad-mission; call 601-968-0857. … The Detectives Mystery Dinner Theatre presents “The End of All Mysteries” at Hal & Mal’s at 6:30 p.m. $41, call 601-291-7444. … The D’lo Trio is at the Cherokee Inn at 6:30 p.m. Free. … Greenfi sh

plays at Underground 119 from 8-11 p.m. Free. … Jackie Bell, Norman Clark and Smoke Stack Lightning return to 930 Blues Cafe to perform at 8 p.m. $5.

FRIDAY 5/21 Save gas and get some exercise during National Bike to Work Day. Visit jacksonbikeadvocates.org for details. … Enjoy the sounds of Akami Graham at Freelon’s. Call 601-949-2535. … Catch Eric Stracener and the Church Keys at Hal & Mal’s at 8 p.m. Call 601-948-0888. … 4ever Friday at Afrika Book Cafe (404 Mitchell Ave.) at 9 p.m. includes music by Tiff and Radical 3000. $10 before 10 p.m.; call 601-454-8313. … Lucero and Taylor Hildebrand are at Ole Tav-ern at 9 p.m. Call 601-960-2700. … Roots rock band Rocket 88 performs at Martin’s at 10 p.m. Call 601- 354-9712. …

The Provine High School All Classes Reunion at Schimmel’s is for graduates up to the class of 2006. The attire is upscale. $10; call 601-918-2894 or 601-502-6884.

SATURDAY 5/22 The Renaissance Fine Arts Festival at The Renais-sance at Colony Park (1000 Highland Colony Parkway, Ridgeland) is from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. and continues May 23 from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Free; call 800-468-6078. … Jesse Labbe and Anthony Coffee sign copies of and draw sketches from their book “Berona’s War Field Guide” at Heroes and Dreams (5352 Highway 25, Suite 1650, Flowood) from 1-5 p.m. $3.95 book; call 601-992-3100. …The Blues Festival at Soulshine, Township includes a performance by the Juvenators at 2 p.m. Call 601-856-8646. … The Music in May Festival with Jaheim, Fantasia, K.D. Brosia and Karen Brown at the Mississippi Coliseum (1207 Mississippi St.) starts at 7 p.m. $25-$40 limited discounted advance tickets, $30-$45 reserved; call 601-353-0603 or 800-745-3000. … The Mississippi Community Symphonic Band concert at the Belhaven University Center for the Arts (835 River-side Dr.) at 7 p.m. includes a performance by the Missis-sippi Swing. Free; call 601-605-2786. … The Glitter Boys, Wild Street and Black Tora rock the house at Fire at 9 p.m. Call 601-592-1000. … The Latin rooftop dance party at Fondren Corner starts at 9 p.m. $10; visit salsams.com. … Tim Avalon and Swing de Paris perform at The Auditorium at 9:30 p.m. $5. … Stay up all night for music by Sherman Lee Dillon’s Mississippi Sound with Anna Lee Dillon at F. Jones Corner from 11:30 p.m.-4 a.m. $10.

SUNDAY 5/23 The National Go Outdoors Event at Bass Pro Shops (100 Bass Pro Drive, Pearl) through May 31 includes fi shing demonstrations and kids’ activities. Free; call 601-933-3700 for a complete schedule. … Open-mic poetry at Cultural Expressions starts at 8 p.m. $5. … Diesel 255 plays at Sam’s Lounge from 9 p.m.-1 a.m. Visit myspace.com/diesel255.

MONDAY 5/24 The “Six Over 64.9” exhibit continues at Gallery 119 until May 31. Hours are 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday and by appointment. Free; call 601-969-4091. … Karaoke at Dreamz Jxn begins at 5:30 p.m. Call 601-979-3994. … The Central Mississippi Blues Society Jam at Hal & Mal’s is from 8-11 p.m. $5.

TUESDAY 5/25 The Xtremes perform at Shucker’s from 7-11 p.m. Free. … New Stage Theatre (1100 Carlisle St.) presents “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do”at 7:30 p.m. The show con-tinues through May 29 and June 2-5. $22, $18 students and seniors 60 and up, call 601-948-3531. … The Pub Quiz at Hal & Mal’s starts at 8 p.m. Call 601-948-0888.

WEDNESDAY 5/26 Ms. Sinatra performs at the Steam Room Grille at 6 p.m. Call 601-899-8588. … Come for crawfi sh and blues with Scott Albert Johnson and Bob Gates at Parker House on the patio from 6:30-9:30 p.m. Call 601-856-0043. … The Emma Wynters Trio is at Underground 119 from 8-11 p.m. Free. … Singer/Songwriter Night is at Hal & Mal’s. Call 601-948-0888.

THURSDAY 5/27 See the “Icons of the Permanent Collection” exhibit at the Mississippi Museum of Art (380 S. Lamar St.). Museum hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and noon-5 p.m. Sunday. Free; call 601-960-1515. … Doug Frank SurRealLife is at Fitzgerald’s from 7-11 p.m. Visit myspace.com/doug-frankmusic. … Hunter Gibson performs at AJ’s Seafood Grille from 6:30-10 p.m. Free. More events and details at jfpevents.com.

BEST BETSMay 20 - 27

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by Latasha Willisevents@jacksonfreepress.com Fax: 601-510-9019Daily updates at jfpevents.com

Fantasia performs during the Music in May Festival May 22 at 7 p.m. at the Mississippi Coliseum.

DJ Reign (pictured) and DJ Hova are regulars at “Can’t Feel My Face Fridays” at Dreamz Jxn.

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JFP SPONSORED EVENTSRadio JFP on WLEZ, at WLEZ 100.1 FM and wlezfm.com. Join Donna Ladd and Todd Stauffer every Thursday from noon-1 p.m., where they discuss vital issues and play local music. This week’s guests are singer Akami Graham and authors Willie and Terica McKinnis. Listen to podcasts of all shows on jfpradio.com. Free; call 601-362-6121, ext. 17.

Young Leaders in Philanthropy Lunch and Learn May 20, 11:30 a.m., at United Way (843 N. President St.), in the conference room. The speaker is Cecily McNair, director of the Mississippi Teacher’s Center. $10 lunch or bring your own; call 601-665-9243.

JFP Lounge at Pi(e) Lounge May 20, 6 p.m., at Sal & Mookie’s (565 Taylor St.). Enjoy a special JFP “Creative Class” martini, free munchies, and lots of fellowship with Jackson creatives and progressives. Free admission; call 601-362-6121, ext. 11.

Youth Media Project. Know a teenager who wants to “be the media” this summer? The Youth Media Project, housed at the Jackson Free Press, has spots for young people who want to learn to report, blog, shoot and edit video, and much more. YMP stu-dents will produce a special issue of the JFP about the project. Hours flexible. Call 601-362-6121, ext. 16, to inquire.

The Market at Fondren June 19. Jim Burwell, Mike Peters and Robert Mann are coordinating a new market across North State Street from Mimi’s in Fondren. Now looking for vendors, musicians and volunteers. Call Jim Burwell at 601-366-6111 for more information.

COMMUNITYYoung Professionals Alliance Luncheon May 20, noon, at Greater Jackson Chamber Partnership (201 S. President St.). Marianna and Andy Chap-man with HALO Business Advisers will talk about the effective use of social media in business. You must RSVP to nmcnamee@greaterjacksonpartner ship.com. $10 lunch, $7 lunch for members; e-mail nmcnamee@ greaterjacksonpartnership.com.

Small Standard Flower Show May 20, 3 p.m., at Eagle Ridge Conference Center (1500 Raymond Lake Road, Raymond). The theme of the show is “Great Beginnings.” The Raymond Garden Club is the host. Free; call 601-857-2272.

Networking in the Neighborhood May 20, 5 p.m., at AJ’s on the Lake (361 Township Ave., Ridgeland). The event offers those who are new to the area an opportunity to meet local folks, try new foods and get involved with area charities while hav-ing fun. Free; call 601-624-7738 or 601-718-4056.

Ridgeland Rendezvous May 20, 5 p.m., in Ridgeland. View artwork by Southern artists and enjoy food, fun and atmosphere at Ridgeland’s galleries, restaurants and shopping centers. Visit visitridgeland.com.

Tri-County Chamber Business After Hours May 20, 5:05 p.m., at Trustmark Park (1 Braves Way, Pearl). The networking event includes speed networking opportunities, door prizes and a grand door prize for the best speed networker. Admission includes food, soft drinks and a ticket to the Mississippi Braves game against the Huntsville Stars at 7:05 p.m. Please enter at the rear gate. RSVP to nmcnamee@greaterjackson partnership.com by May 18. $5, free for chil-dren under 2; call 601-948-7575, ext. 241.

Precinct 3 COPS Meeting May 20, 6 p.m., at Jackson Police Department - Precinct 3 (3925 W. Northside Drive). These monthly meetings are forums designed to help resolve community issues or problems, from crime to potholes. Call 601-960-0003.

SafeHeart Screenings May 21, 8 a.m., at Jackson Medical Mall (350 W. Woodrow Wilson Ave.), in the Community Room. SafeHeart Health Screens of Hattiesburg will do five ultrasound and EKG screenings that target risk for heart attack, stroke, abdominal aortic aneurysm, atrial fibrillation, and peripheral arterial disease. Call to register or come early. $129, free for those who qualify; call 601-450-5483 or 866-548-3006.

National Bike to Work Day May 21. The Jack-son Bike Advocates are encouraging commuters to take their bikes to work to get some exercise, save gas and do something good for the environ-ment. Visit jacksonbikeadvocates.org.

Heart Health Luncheon May 21, 11:30 a.m., at the King Edward Hotel (235 W. Capitol St.). Learn how obesity, high cholesterol and physical inactivity can affect your heart, and what you can do about it. An expert panel will be there to answer questions. Registration is required. Free; call 601-376-1172.

Federal Policy Briefing May 21, 2 p.m., at the Mississippi Coalition for Citizens with Disabilities (2 Old River Place, Suite A). The 90-minute briefing will bring people up to date on national issues that affect people with disabilities. Call 800-721-7255 or 601-969-0601.

National Go Outdoors Events May 21-31, at Bass Pro Shops (100 Bass Pro Drive, Pearl). The series of events is a chance for kids and adults to recon-nect with the outdoors. Activities vary each day and include fishing demonstrations, chainsaw carving and Dutch oven cooking. Call the store for a com-plete schedule. Free; call 601-933-3700.

MHSAA State Fast Pitch Softball Championships May 21-22, at Freedom Ridge Park (235 W. School St., Ridgeland). The championships start at 6 p.m. May 21 and 10 a.m. May 22. $10; call 601-924-6400.

4ever Friday May 21, 9 p.m., at Afrika Book Cafe (404 Mitchell Ave.). View artwork, listen to poetry and enjoy entertainment by performers such as Tiff and Radical 3000 starting at10 p.m. Purchase a beverage or bring your own. $10 before 10 p.m.; call 601-454-8313.

Provine High School All-Classes Reunion May 21, 10 p.m., at Schimmel’s (2615 N. State St.). All Provine graduates up to the class of 2006 are invited. The attire is upscale and trend-setting. DJ Unpredictable and DJ I.E. will pro-vide music. Advance tickets and VIP seating are available. $10; call 601-918-2894 or 601-502-6884.

Summer Enhancement Program Registration through May 21, at Jackson Medical Mall (350 W. Woodrow Wilson Ave.), in the Parks and Recre-ation Administrative Office. The registration is for Jackson youth ages 7-12 and ends on May 21. The program begins on June 7. $70; call 601-960-0471.

Fondren Nails Princess Party May 22, 8 a.m.- 12:30 p.m., at Fondren Nails (2906 N. State St, Suite B1). Come for a mini-manicure, polish on fingernails and toenails, makeup and more. The event is for ages 4 and up, and parents must be present for children to receive service. Pre-registra-tion required. $15; call 601-362-6292.

“Buy the Book” Book Sale May 22, 10 a.m.- 2 p.m., at Eudora Welty Library (300 N. State St.). The event is sponsored by Jackson Friends of the Library. Call 601-968-5811.

Docent Informational Session May 22, 11 a.m., at Jackson Zoological Park (2918 W. Capitol St.). The meeting is for adults 18 and over who are interested in volunteering to teach visitors about animals and habitats at the zoo, work special events and spearhead special projects. A light lunch is provided. RSVP by May 18. E-mail agrinnan@jacksonzoo.org.

jfpevents

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Lottie B. Thornton Celebration Luncheon May 22, 11:30 a.m., at Roberts Walthall Hotel (225 E. Capitol St.). Thornton was the first coordinator of the Early Childhood Education Center and the first director of the Jackson State University Early Child-hood Education Center. Payments must be received by May 18. $30; call 601-949-7851.

Citywide Health Fair May 22, noon, at Making Jesus Real Church (422 Riverwind Drive, Pearl). Receive free health screenings and health informa-tion, and participate in family activities. Free; call 601-984-4073 or 601-213-8558.

Car Seat Safety Check May 22, noon, at St. Domi-nic Hospital (969 Lakeland Drive), at the Medical Mall entrance. Mississippi Safe Kids will show care-givers how to properly install a child’s car seat. Free; call 601-200-6934.

Economic Development Roundtable Luncheon May 24, 11:30 a.m., at University Club (210 E. Capitol St. Suite 2200). The topics are the energy regulatory lawsuit and health care for Mississippians. The speaker is Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood. Please RSVP by May 19. Attendees may bring guests. $10 lunch; call 601-366-8301.

Jackson Audubon Society Monthly Chapter Meet-ing and Potluck Supper May 25, 6:30 p.m., at Eudora Welty Library (300 N. State St.). Bring a dish and invite your friends and neighbors. Drinks will be provided. There will be door prizes, the election of officers and a lecture by keynote speaker Terri Jacobson. Jacobson will speak on the topic “A Bird of Fire - the Endangered Kirtland’s Warbler.” Open to the public. Free; call 601-956-7444.

“History Is Lunch” May 26, noon, at the William F. Winter Archives and History Building (200 North St.). Mississippi Heritage Trust director David Preziosi presents “The Ten Most Endangered Sites.” Bring a lunch; coffee/water provided. Free; call 601-576-6850.

Events at Community Foundation of Greater Jack-son (525 E. Capitol St., Suite 5B). Call 601-974-6044, ext. 221.• Charles “Chuck” E Griffin Endowed Memorial

Scholarship Fund Call for Applications through May 31. The fund will provide a cash scholarship based on merit and need to a graduating student at Jim Hill High School and to a graduating stu-dent at Hinds Community College who plan to continue their education at a four-year institution. The fund also awards an annual scholarship to a Tougaloo College graduate who has been accept-ed into the American Bar Association Council on the Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO) pro-gram. The application deadline is May 31.

• Anthony “Tony” Gobar Juvenile Justice Scholarship Fund Call for Applications through May 31. The fund will provide a cash scholarship based on both merit and need to a full-time junior or senior at a public university in Mississippi or Southern University in Loui-siana majoring in criminal justice, political sci-ence, counseling or similar major. The student must have a stated career interest in juvenile justice or a similar field and have demonstrated a strong commitment to community and pub-lic service. The application deadline is May 31.

Mental Health Awareness Month through May 31, at NAMI Mississippi (411 Briarwood Drive, Suite 401). May is Mental Health Awareness Month in Mississippi. NAMI Mississippi (National Alliance on Mental Illness) is the voice for persons with mental illness and their families. Call the office for information about support and intervention. Free; call 601-899-9058.

Mississippi Arts Commission Minigrant Call for Applications through June 1, at Mississippi Arts Commission (Woolfolk Building, 501 N. West St., Suite 1101A). Professional-level artists may apply to support promotion efforts, attend a pro-fessional workshop or to purchase artistic supplies. Non-profit organizations or local government entities may apply for up to $1,000 to support presentations by members of the MAC’s Artist Roster, or to support professional development efforts for an arts organization. The application deadline is June 1. Free; call 601-359-6030.

Grant Development Program Call for Applica-tions through June 15, at Jackson Convention and Visitors Bureau (111 E. Capitol St., Suite 102). The Jackson Convention and Visitors Bureau’s grant program is open to any non-profit tourism-related entity, such as attractions and events, in the city of Jackson. The application deadline is June 15. The grant period is from September 1, 2010, to August 31, 2011. Call 601-960-1891.

Greater Belhaven Market through Dec. 18, 8 a.m.-2 p.m., at Mississippi Farmers Market (929 High St.). Buy some fresh produce or other food or gift items. The market is open Saturdays. Free admis-sion; call 601-506-2848 or 601-354-6573.

Farmers Market ongoing, at Jackson Roadmap to Health Equity Project’s Farmers Market (2548 Livingston Road). Buy from a wide selection of fresh produce provided by participating local farmers. Market hours are 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on Tuesday and Fridays, and 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m. on Saturdays. Free admission; call 601-951-9273.

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jfpevents from page 31

Mississippi Film and Video Alliance is giving new fi lmmakers a boost with the Emerging Filmmaker’s Grant. The grants

are available to fi lmmakers who are just starting out in the industry, and applica-tions are due May 21. Each year, the non-profi t distributes $12,500 to Mississippi fi lmmakers, funded by the Mississippi Film Offi ce. An out-of-state panel of judges from the fi lm industry se-lects the grant recipients. “We’ve funded dramatic, narrative and documentary fi lms—any project that has artistic or social merit,” MFVA Vice President Sam Watson said. “… The main purpose is to help foster talent among fi lm-

makers in our state and increase the talent pool of working professionals.” Watson said that the grants—$2,500

for non-students and $500 for students—are meant to be matching funds for projects that already have fi nancing. “People can make shorter works with the grants and a lot of people then go on to make their fi rst feature,” Watson said.

“Film is a different business. People want to see what you’ve (already) done.” To obtain a grant application, call Sam Watson at 601-613-4602 or e-mail him at sam@samwatson.com Grants applications are also available online on the MFVA’s Face-book page. —Lacey McLaughlin

Funds Available for Filmmakers

The Mississippi Film and Video Alliance is distributing grants to local fi lmmakers.

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WORK PLAY ongoing, at Last Call (3716 Interstate 55 North). The networking event is held every Monday from 6-10 p.m. and includes cocktails, music, board games and video games. Business casual attire is preferred. Free admission; call 601-421-7516 or 601-713-2700.

STAGE AND SCREEN“The End of All Mysteries” Dinner Theatre May 20, 6 p.m., at Hal & Mal’s (200 Commerce St.). Seating begins at 6 p.m., and the performance by The Detectives Mystery Theatre begins at 7 p.m. A reservation is recommended. $41; call 601-291-7444.

“Breaking Up is Hard to Do” May 25-June 6, at New Stage Theatre (1100 Carlisle St.). The comedy is about two friends from Brooklyn in search of good times and romance over one wild Labor Day weekend. The score showcases 18 Neil Sedaka clas-sics. Show times are 7:30 p.m. on May 25-29 and June 2-5. 2 p.m. matinees are on May 30 and June 6. $22, $18 students and seniors 60 and up; call 601-948-3533.

“Les Plages d’Agnes (The Beaches of Agnes)” Film Viewing May 27, 6 p.m., at Welty Commons (719 Congress St.). A cash bar, wine and snacks are avail-able at 6 p.m., and the film starts at 7:30 p.m. The film is presented by the Crossroads Film Society and the Alliance Francaise de Jackson. $7, $5 Crossroads Film Society members; call 601-510-9148.

MUSICSymphony on the Square May 22, 6 p.m., at Can-ton Historic Square, on the courthouse lawn. Local talent and the Mississippi Symphony orchestra will perform. Spectators can bring lawn chairs and pic-nic baskets. Free; call 800-844-3369.

Mississippi Community Symphonic Band Concert May 22, 7 p.m., at Belhaven University Center for the Arts (835 Riverside Dr.). The performance includes a special appearance by the Mississippi Swing. Free; call 601-605-2786.

Music in May Festival May 22, 7 p.m., at Missis-sippi Coliseum (1207 Mississippi St.). Performers include Jaheim, Fantasia, K.D. Brosia, Karen Brown and the Stevie J Band. Tickets are available at the Coliseum Box Office and all Ticketmaster loca-tions starting April 27. $25-$40 limited discounted advance tickets, $30-$45 reserved; call 601-353-0603 or 800-745-3000.

LITERARY AND SIGNINGS“The Marrowbone Marble Company” May 20, 5 p.m., at Lemuria Books (202 Banner Hall, 4465 Interstate 55 North). Glenn Taylor signs copies of his book; reading of the book at 5:30 p.m. $24.99 book; call 601-366-7619.

Magnolia State Romance Writers Meeting ongo-ing, at Flowood Library (103 Winners Circle, Flo-wood). The organization meets every third Saturday from 10 a.m.-noon. Get tips on writing your first romance novel. Free; call 601-992-9831.

CREATIVE CLASSESJewelry Making Class ongoing, at Dream Beads (605 Duling Ave.). This class is offered every Satur-day from 10 a.m. to noon. Free; call 601-664-0411.

Belly Dance Class ongoing, at Lumpkin’s Restaurant (182 Raymond Road). The class is held every Sat-urday at 9:30 a.m. Monique Davis is the instructor. $5; call 601-373-7707.

All Writers Workshop ongoing, at Pearl Public Library (2416 Old Brandon Road, Pearl). The workshop, which is held every 2nd and 4th Tues-day each month from 6-7:30 p.m., will focus on inspiration, tips, exercises, and member critique. Free; call 601-932-2562.

GALLERIESArtist Reception May 20, 5 p.m., at Southern Breeze Gallery (1000 Highland Colony). See paintings by Lee Gibson during Ridgeland Rendezvous. Free; call 601-607-4147.

Renaissance Fine Arts Festival May 22-23, at The Renaissance at Colony Park (1000 Highland Colony Parkway, Ridgeland). The juried two-day festival will feature the nation’s top artists. Hours are 10 a.m.-8 p.m. on May 22 and 11 a.m.-6 p.m. on May 23. Free; call 800-468-6078.

Open House through May 29, at North Midtown Arts Center (121 Millsaps Ave.). Every Saturday in May from noon-7 p.m., the center will be open to showcase their artists’ work and to provide a per-formance space for others to express themselves. All local artists, performers and musicians are welcome to participate by registering via e-mail. Free; e-mail rdstowe@comcast.net.

“Six Over 64.9” through May 31, at Gallery 119 (119 S. President St.). See new works by Jim Becker, Norma Bourdeaux, Bewey Bowden, Evelyn Gray, Charles Guess, Jean Seymour. An opening reception on May 13 will be from 5-7:30 p.m. Regular hours are 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday and by appoint-ment. Free admission; call 601-969-4091.

Mississippi Watercolor Society Exhibit through June 30, at The Cedars Historic Home (4145 Old Canton Road). Artwork by society members is on display until June 30. Gallery hours are Wednesdays and Fridays from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Free admission; call 601-981-9606.

EXHIBITS AND OPENINGSLil McKH Jewelry Trunk Show May 20, 4 p.m., at Mississippi Craft Center (950 Rice Road, Ridgeland). The artist will attend to show, sell and discuss her work with precious metals, stones, pearls and enamels. Free with items for sale; call 601-856-7546.

Mustard Seed Exhibit through June 24, at Missis-sippi Arts Commission (Woolfolk Building, 501 N. West St., Suite 1101A). Artwork by Mustard Seed residents on display with an invitation-only closing reception June 24 from 2-4 p.m. Gallery hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday. Free; call 601-359-6030.

“Mound Bayou: The Promise Land, 1887-2010” through June 30, at Smith Robertson Museum (528 Bloom St.). See photographs related to the founding of the city. Hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday. $4.50 adults, $3.00 seniors, $1.50 children under 18; call 601-960-1457.

Artist and Three-Dimensional Artisans Exhibit through June 30, at Mississippi Library Commis-sion (3881 Eastwood Drive). See works by artist Becky Barnett Chamblee and Craftsmen’s Guild artisans Anne Campbell, Carmen Castilla and Rhonda Blasingame. Hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday. An artists reception will be on June 3 from 4-6 p.m. Free; call 601-432-4056.

“A Portrait of Jackson Women – Photography by Karla Pound & Leah Overstreet” through June 30, at Arts Center of Mississippi (201 E. Pascagoula St.). The documentary project includes audio inter-views and environmental portraits of twenty Jack-sonian women including the late Mildred Wolfe, Ellen Douglas, Dr. Helen Barns, Patti Carr Black, and Dorothy Moore. Hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday. Free; call 601-960-1557.

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Check jfpevents.com for updates and more listings. To add an event, e-mail all details (phone number, start/end date and time, street address, cost, URL, etc.) to events@jacksonfreepress.com or fax to 601-510-9019. The deadline is noon the Thursday prior to the week of publication. Or, add the event online yourself; check out jfpevents.com for instructions.

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books by M. Landis

Free At Last

Comic-book afi cionados will likely remember Trevor Von Eeden for co-creating the character Black Lightning for DC Comics in the ‘70s. This was

the fi rst original African American character for the company, which boasts Batman and Superman in its repertoire. Von Eeden spent the better part of 20 years drawing superheroes for DC and Marvel and then seemed to drop off the radar. So it was a surprise to come across his new graphic novel, the fi rst of two that chronicle the life of Jack Johnson, America’s fi rst black heavyweight champion. “The Original Johnson: Volume One” (IDW Publishing, December 23, 2009, $19.99) by Von Eeden, with George Freeman and Don Hillsman II, is defi -nitely a noteworthy return for the artist. The jump from working on major characters for the two biggest comic- book publishers to doing biographical comics almost sounds like a step backward in this industry. It might have been for another artist, but the story of Jack Johnson has clearly been a labor of love for the artist and now, writer. Graphic novels, and comics in general, can some-times result in tug of war be-tween story and art. As a reader, I can sacrifi ce art for story, but not the reverse. While I was never a huge fan of Von Eeden’s previously pedestrian superhero work, his less realistic and somewhat looser approach to the Jack Johnson story gives the boxer a larger than life, somewhat idealized presence that often seems out of step with the trend towards realism that dominates the superhero genre. The slightly cartoony style lends itself to scenes of Johnson’s fi ghting—from his early days of dock fi ghting, through the brutal time in matches featuring blindfolded fi ghters in a last-man-standing free-for-all, to his rise in the square circle. Just as boldly drawn are scenes from Jack Johnson’s personal life before and during his career. In essence, Von Eeden’s style suits the subject matter’s full-bore approach to life in and out of the ring. This is the story of one man, but a man who virtually represented an entire race of people and their aspiration to be seen as equals to, if not at times superior to, an oppressive belief that African Americans were, by default, inferior to whites. The book makes it clear that both black and white Americans had come to internalize this belief to the point that it permeated society well after the end of slav-ery. The example set by one man became an inspiration for a generation just learning what a measure of freedom could allow for. Riding the rails to New York City as a young man, Johnson makes friends with a fellow vagabond who imparts a sense of the inequality of the times. “It’s all man-made, the feelings of worth-

lessness and inferiority! Made by other men to make a man into a tool—for their benefi t, not his!” the man tells Johnson, perhaps helping spark the fi re of perseverance that Johnson came to embody. Johnson learns from this older man that freedom by itself is useless without the will to act on it, and incorporates this into his quest to do what seemed impos-sible in a less than hospitable environment. Johnson routinely encountered bigotry and the obstacles it places around someone who refuses to “know his place,” from the same men who profi ted from his prowess in the ring. As his mentor, “Jersey” Joe Walcott, phrased it, “The goal of fi ghtin’ is never just to hurt your opponent. It’s to win! It’s to thrive!

It’s to enjoy the fact of your bein’ alive!” In the end, it’s John-son’s love for living and the sport and craft of boxing coupled with his belief in his own self-worth that drives him toward becoming the man who would redefi ne all previous notions white America clung to regarding their superiority. The book is surpris-ingly well written; Von Eeden may have trumped his artistic skills. At times

his writing style becomes lyrical, particularly during a dream sequence—”His enemies were legion, beyond counting, and his heart was light as he leapt into battle”—but he manages not to veer off into overly fl orid prose. And while the subject matter is rife with the ups and downs of Johnson’s life, and his struggles with white society, the story moves along at an easy pace without falling into preachiness in regard to rising above the in-herent hardships of being essentially a second class citizen. It makes for an interesting and dramatic read about a true American hero who refused to accept what was offered and gained more than was thought possible. As Johnson himself states: “My hands ... these hands ... with these hands, I can do anything ... haha ... yeah, I can change the world.” “The Original Johnson: Volume One” is the fi rst of a two volume set with the second volume to be released this month. As it stands, the fi rst volume is an engaging tale of Ameri-ca’s fi rst African American heavyweight cham-pion, and a stark reminder of this country’s less-than-stellar treatment of some of its own citizens in the early part of the 20th century. A bit of a history lesson at times, but enjoyably so, “The Original Johnson” offers an interest-ing look at a man who faced down prejudice and emerged a better person, and a champion for more than just fans of boxing. “The Original Johnson Volume One” is available at Action Island Comics in Ridgeland, Van’s Comics and Cards in Ridgeland, and He-roes and Dreams in Flowood.

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Interested? Send an e-mail to interns@jacksonfreepress.com, telling us why you want

to intern with us and what makes you the ideal candidate.*College credit available to currently enrolled college students in select disciplines.

• Editorial/News• Photography• Cultural/Music Writing• Fashion/Style

• Arts Writing/Editing• Internet• Graphic Design• Communications: Marketing/Events/PR

Hone your skills, gain valuable experience and college credit* by interning with the Jackson Free Press. You set

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arts by Valerie Wells

Challenging Stereotypes

A cardboard cutout of President Barack Obama smiles down through a win-dow at a pleasant-looking woman standing in her backyard. She smiles

and waits patiently, standing outside her sun-room in her jacket. She looks like someone’s grandmother, someone’s friend. Dr. Helen Barnes looks like someone you want to know and who might invite you inside. Karla Pound was walking her dog around her block in Fondren when she met her next-door neighbor, this older woman who dressed comfortably and had an aura of confi dence. A casual friendship grew, and then Pound learned who the neighbor was. The calm, smart, older woman turned out to be Helen Barnes, one of the fi rst black women to practice medicine in Mississippi, one of the fi rst black Mississippians to get into medical school, one of the fi rst black women to teach at University Medical Center. That dog-walking encounter was four years ago. The realization that Barnes was a historical Jackson fi gure inspired Pound, 36, a photographer, to document lives of other legendary women in Jackson. She told another photographer and life-long friend, Leah Overstreet, 32, about the chance meeting with Barnes. They wondered how many other important Jackson women they might profi le in a tribute. “A Portrait of Jackson Women” is a multimedia documentary exhibit with large format photographs, audio and a short fi lm. The photographers found 20 women in Jack-son who changed history. They started with Barnes, and then photographed artist Mildred Wolfe and author Ellen Douglas. “We started this just for us,” Pound said. “We’d shoot one lady because she interested us. Then she’d tell us about somebody else.” Pound and Overstreet both grew up in Jackson and both attended Jackson Prep. Growing up, they had heard of some of the women, but not too much. “I can’t believe I didn’t know about them.

These people should be studied,” Pound said. “These women are so amazing,” Over-street said. “We started listening to Helen Barnes’ story. We were blown away. It was an incredible story with all the craziness of the civil rights era and her spirit of wanting to help people.” Pound is constantly booked with wed-ding shoots around Jackson, and Overstreet works in New York City as a photo editor for MTV. For the exhibit, Overstreet taped in-terviews with the subjects. She asked all 20 women why Mississippi is important to them. After the interviews ended, she spent many hours editing. She also made a short fi lm about the 20 “strong women who did great things.” Overstreet wants to bring the exhibit to New York City to show this lesser-known side of history. “There are still stereotypes that are unfair that Mississippi still gets,” she says. “These Mississippi women did challenge stereotypes through art, through community service. They directly challenged those stereotypes.” The project differs from the day-to-day work of the two photographers. “With brides, I love to capture those mo-ments at weddings when everyone is at their best,” Pound says who has her own photo stu-dio in Fondren. “But older women put life in perspective (when they say), ‘This is what we want to do; this is how we made a difference.’ It helps us with stuff we have to do every day to pay the bills.” She remembers when they asked arts supporter Sally Carmichael about time man-agement. “How do you have time for it all?” Pound asked her. Her response was blunt: “I don’t play bridge,” Carmichael said. “If you don’t do all the other stupid stuff, you have time,” Pound said, interpreting Carmichael’s words. Mildred Wolfe also left an impression. “I wanted to be an artist; I didn’t want to be just married to one,” she told the women. “Each woman has a different story,” Overstreet says. “All these women gave back to the community. All have been a fabric, a life intersected through mutual friends and acquaintances. We saw connections as we put pieces together. All these women have done so much work that matters, it inspires you to fol-low your passion.” Overstreet’s passion is creating projects like this one that consumed all her free time and took years to pull together. Still, she en-joys her professional life in New York City and doesn’t foresee moving anytime soon. “I’m taking it one day at a time,” she says. “A lot of projects I do are down south. I do fi nd myself coming home to do projects.” “A Portrait of Jackson Women: Photography by Karla Pound and Leah Overstreet” opens Fri-day, May 14 at the Arts Center of Mississippi.

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Dr. Helen Barnes, one of the fi rst African American women to practice medicine in Mississippi, is featured in “A Portrait of Jackson Women.”

J A C K S O N ’ S P R E M I E R EE N T E R TA I N M E N T C O M P L E X

Electric Relaxation Monday

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Live Band & DJ, Open Micupstairs with Tweeked Out

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SATURDAYS AVAILABLE FOR RENTAL

www.mississippihappening.com

Visit the web for weekly updates about new and upcoming MS artists

Follow Mississippi Happeningon Facebook and on Twitter

Videos, Interviews, Photos,Concert Announcements,Reviews & Monthly Podcast

Mississippi Happeningproudly supports new music

and arts in Mississippi.

Please submit your music tomshappening@gmail.com

G E E K

N E E D E D

The JFP seeks a jack-of-all-trades geek for a variety of tasks,

ranging from back-end Web programming to massaging our fi le servers to teaching others

techie stuff (video editing, photo uploading, podcasting, etc). Must

love Macs, HTML, CSS -- and be at least JavaScript- and PHP-

curious. If you meet those criteria AND you’re a friendly person

who knows how to lovingly say “Have you tried restarting?” or

“Did you make sure it has paper in the tray?” to harried editors, designers and writers -- then

you’re encouraged to apply! Part-time to start. (Be invaluable and

the position will grow.)

Send resume and caffeine requirements to

todd@jacksonfreepress.com

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music by Lance Lomax

‘Music is a Life Force’

Alow light shines down on the band as Vasti bounces and sways on stage, his face squinting as his fi ngers lock down over the strings of his electric guitar.

Derrick Martin pounds the drums, and Chalmer’s Davis’ hands dance over the key-board. The result is a synchronized sound and a call for full attention that is hard to deny. Jackson began playing the guitar profes-sionally at 15, and has been an integral part of blues culture in Mississippi since then, includ-ing late-night performances with performers like Patrice Moncell, ZZ Hill, Johnny Taylor, The House Rockers and many others at the old Subway Lounge, a Jackson juke joint that closed in 2003. The musician had a featured role in “Last of the Mississippi Jukes,” work-ing with actor Morgan Freeman and director Robert Mugge to explore the state’s blues heri-tage and chronicle the history of the Subway Lounge the year it closed. Jackson studied music with an emphasis on percussion at Jackson State University in the 1970s. He also worked as a session guitar-ist, writer and producer for Malaco Records playing with artists like Bobby Bland and De-nise Lassale. He currently lives in Hattiesburg and spoke to the Jackson Free Press by phone.

What’s your favorite thing about performing in Jackson? Being in Jackson is like playing in my liv-ing room, there’s such a natural connection. The audience and I are on the same level. They seem to bring me a lot of love. It is a celebration of Mississippi culture.

Do you have favorite songs to perform? It’s not so much a certain song; I like to perform music that has integrity. Music is a life force for me. What I experience is a glori-fi cation and a gratitude for this gift that God has given me. It’s a celebration of life spiritu-ally and physically.

Do you ever perform originals? Yes, it’s a mixture of my compositions, traditional music of Mississippi, funk, soul, reggae, gospel and, of course, blues. The main

thing is to have a dialogue with the audience. It’s an interactive experience between audi-ence and myself.

What stands out about performing at Underground 119? I have an opportunity in Mississippi to explore the roots, the tree, the branches and the fruit of American music. When I play 119, it’s not a presentation of artifacts. As B.B. King said: “I like to live the life I sing about in my song.”

Do you play any other instruments? Yes, drums, bass and a little piano.

How long have you and your band played together? The other musicians and I have a history. The depth of our experiences is beyond mu-sic. I think that energy and love is defi nitely part of the power of our performance. Things become more intuitive because when you’ve been around someone for a long time you can sense what they’re feeling.

Do you have a favorite artist, or infl uence? Growing up, my two biggest musical role models were my grandparents—blues from my grandfather, and gospel from my grandmother. Later, I was sort of enamored with the great jazz guitarists Joe Pass and Wes Montgomery, and the great drummer Billy Cobham. B.B. King, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Ma-halia Jackson and The Staple Singers were the music that was played around the house.

Is there anything about your musical career you’d like to share? As a kid I loved sound. They called me the noisemaker because I was always humming and beating on things. I was a happy child. The moment I could transfer the sounds in my head to the guitar I found my twin. Another was playing with the Mis-sissippi Symphony Orchestra at Smith Wills Stadium. To have a full orchestra accompany-ing you and playing your arrangement is a wonderful musical experience.

What do you think about Jackson’s economic development? I applaud them for all they are putting into this. When people feel good about them-selves it energizes people. When people talk about Mississippi, they think about the blues. Mississippi has a bunch of good stuff that the world should experience. It’s a good thing not to only put the good dishes out just for company. In attracting folks to the area, we have to acknowledge that we have something worth sharing. We’ve got some great stuff. We will share it with you, but it’s ours, and we are proud of it. Jackson and his band will perform at Un-derground 119 (119 S. President St., 601-352-2322) Saturday, May 22, at 9 p.m.

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Blues musician Vasti Jackson performs at Underground 119 May 22 at 9 p.m.

BANDS WANTEDvocalist looking for bandim a rock vocalist looking for a band in need of a lead singer please call at any time my name is shane (601) 940-0510

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Professional Sound EngineersNeed sound equipment or just a couple of engi-neers at your next event call Daniel 601.488.0436 any venue large or small anywhere in the south.

Complete PAHuge carvin pa for sale, all accessories, cables, processors, mics, stands, lights, amps, etc. Over $20,000 in gear to sell for best offers. Equipment is in as new condition. (225) 341-9391

Guitar Gear - Must Sell!!Vox AD120VTH Valvetronix Stereo Head $400, 1x12 and 2x12 cabinets- $80-$125. (601) 540-1739

MISCELLANEOUSNeed A Few Good MusiciansInterested in helping to set up music non-profi t organization (centered around the BLUES) for disadvantaged youths in the Jackson metropolitan area? If so, I am looking to talk to you. Need musi-cians who can teach everything from banjo, guitar, dobro, mandolin, fi ddle, accordion, harmonica, piano, etc., etc. COME BE A PART OF THIS GREAT PROJECT! (601) 924-0210.

MUSICIANS AVAILABLERock Singer AvailableMale Rock/Metal Singer looking for experienced cover band. Many years experience. Contact myspace or facebook: Crystal Quazar. Phone: 601-572-6253

Drummer AvailableMature/seasoned drummer available. Have played everything from country to Christian Con-temporary. Would like to join existing band or form new one with seasoned musicians ONLY...no beginners please! Would like to play classic rock, blues and/or contemporary. Call if interested. (601) 613-5835

Looking to Start BandI am a bass player new in town and am looking to start a band in the Jackson area. I need a guitarist, drummer and lead vocals. No specifi c genre is preferred, but the band will be based on rock and metal (no death or black metal). I’ve played in several bands and played out hundreds of times and am able to get gigs. If interested or for more info please call Chris @ 386-365-2944

Female Vocalist Seeking BandI am a 16-year-old female vocalist seeking a synthpop or rock band. Ages of band members preferrably 25 years or younger due to parental objections. Contact by email at freezepopforever1029@hotmail.com.

Drummer available42 year old drummer looking to play with existing group or start one. Great love for the instrument and really want to put something together for fun and profi t (gigs 1-3 month). Rock, classic rock, pop, jazz, and swing. Good chops and attitude, no ego, just want to play. Been done wrong a few times, looking for mature guys/girls who have their act together and are serious. Call bill @ 601-955-7924 or e-mail at wricha2796@aol. Com. (601) 955-7924

Old Drummer Available!DRUMMER AVAILABLE: Most recently, I have played with The Veterans of Foreign Bars band. Interested in playing Blues, Funk, Soul, maybe Country. I am an older guy and settled in for the duration. I would be interested in a steady band, fi ll-in, and, possibly, a new start-up. Let me hear: mcdrum89@yahoo.com or call 601-832-0831

Musician Available25 Years experience playing Drums, Guitar & Bass. Recently relocated to Jackson from Memphis, TN. All genres of music. Contact Tim at 601-665-5976. Or email: reeves@cgdsl.net Serious inquires only.

Drummer Looking For BandI’m an experienced drummer looking to form/join a band. I have mostly played metal, but I am open to rock/hard rock/metal, etc. Call Dave at (769) 226-0845.

Female Vocalist/SongwriterSeeking fellow musicians. Serious inquiries only. Call Nikki 601-259-1288.

MUSICIANS WANTEDChurch Gospel Pianist neededSeeking p/t gospel pianist in brandon, ms. Please contact 601-720-5878 for more info.

Deathcore guitaristsMetal band looking for 2 exp’d guitarists. Infl u-ences include WhiteChapel, Carnifex, Opeth, etc. Call David for more info (601) 201-3815

Metal Singer & Bassist WantedAnnX is looking for a Experienced Energetic METAL Vocalist and a Bass Player to play shows and write new material. (601) 383-4851

Become our Next InstructorMajor Scales Studio is accepting applications for a classical or rock or jazz guitar teacher. Must have professional appearance. Please email your resume to Majorscales@aol.com.

Cellist Needed For Album/tourCellist needed for my album and possibly to tour shortly after. I am signed with South City Records. I need to start recording ASAP! Must be reliable and dedicated. Please contact me at scorpiano31@gmail.com

Drummer/Bassist needed - MetalWe are in need of a drummer and a bassist. Experi-ence in metal (death, black, etc.) is preffered, but not completely necessary. Call Buddy at (601)502-5647. Thanks for reading.-Buddy

Female Vocalist/SongwriterSeeking fellow musicians. Serious inquiries only. Call Nikki 601-259-1288.

Bass Player Neededfor eclectic cover band that features pedal steel guitar. -Vocals a plus- want to gig once or 2x a month and have lots of fun -Buck Owens to REM- call 601 488 6907 +leave msg

All acoustic blues band is forming.Any acoustic musician who wishes to joins and pay hardcore blues call Mr. Blues at 601-785-9148 or 601-480-3670

Y’allses Blues Band is ComingAll acoustic blues band is forming. Any acoustic mu-sician who wishes to joins and pay hardcore blues call Mr. Blues at 601-785-9148 or 601-480-3670

Looking for band mates? Wanting to sell your gear? Advertise here for free! Visit JFP Classifi eds.com. If you are interested in sponsoring the Musicians Exchange

call JFP Sales at 601-362-6121 ext. 11.

MAY 20, THURSDAYLumpkin's BBQ - Jesse Robinson

(blues lunch) 11:30-1:30 p.m. Hal & Mal's Restaurant - Detec-

tives Mystery Dinner Theatre 6:30-9:30 p.m. $42 w/dinner

F. Jones Corner - Sherman Lee Dil-lon (blues lunch) free; Blues at Sunset Challenge Band 10-4 a.m. free

Underground 119 - Greenfish 8-11 p.m. free

930 Blues Cafe - Jackie Bell, Nor-man Clark & Smoke Stack Lightning 8 p.m. $5

Footloose - Karaoke 8-12 a.m.Parker House (patio) - Chris Gill &

friends (crawfish) 6:30-9:30 p.m.Burgers & Blues - Jason Turner

5:30-9:30 p.m.Shucker's - The Rhythm Masters

7:30-11:30 p.m. freeCongress Street Bar & Grill - Joe

Carroll (blues) 7 p.m.Cherokee Inn - D'lo Trio 6:30 p.m.Steam Roome Grille - Cigar &

Stars: Mark Whittington & Fin-gers Taylor 6:30-9:30 p.m.

Kristo's, Madison - Hunter Gibson 7-10 p.m. free

Pelican Cove - Team Trivia 7 p.m. signup

Regency Hotel - Karaoke 7 p.m. freePoets II - Gravity Electric Cowboy - DJ Cadillac

(country/dance/rock) 9 p.m.McB's - Karaoke 7 p.m. freeHot Shots, Byram - Karaoke 8

p.m. freeEli's Treehouse, V'burg - Karaoke

8 p.m.

MAY 21, FRIDAYOle Tavern - Lucero, Taylor Hildeb-

rand 9 p.m.Martin's - Rocket 88 (roots rock)

10 p.m.Underground 119 - Swing de Paris

(gypsy jazz) 9-1 a.m. Hal & Mal's Restaurant - Eric Stra-

cener & the Church Keys (roots rock) 8 p.m.

Freelon's - Akami GrahamMcB's - Johnny Crocker 8 p.m. freeShucker's - Travelin' Jane Band

8-1 a.m. $5Time Out - Stone Free (blues/rock)

9-1 a.m. F. Jones Corner - Sherman Lee Dillon

(blues lunch); Sherman Lee Dil-lon's Miss Sound w/Hollywood 11:30-4 a.m. (blues) $10

Burgers & Blues - Shaun Patterson 7-11 p.m.

Poets II - Myles Sharp Band 930 Blues Cafe - Blues/Jazz 5:30-8

p.m.; Jackie Bell, 9 p.m. $10Electric Cowboy - DJ Terry 9 p.m.Regency Hotel - Faze 4 - 8:30 p.m. Pelican Cove - Karaoke 7:30 p.m.Dreamz Jxn - DJ Reign & DJ Hova

9 p.m.Footloose - Karaoke 9-1 a.m. freeDick & Jane's - Show Night/DJ

Allen 9 p.m. $6; 18+ $10Cultural Expressions - Reggae/

Hip-Hop/Old School Night 10 p.m. $5

Reed Pierce's - The Colonels 9 p.m. free

Hot Shots, Byram - Karaoke 8 p.m. free

Bottleneck, Ameristar - Memphis All-Stars 8 p.m. free

MAY 22, SATURDAYMartin's - Dirty Dozen Brass

Band (New Orleans Jazz) 10 p.m. www.dirtydozenbrass.com

Jxn Coliseum - Jaheim, Fantasia, K.D. Brosia, Karen Brown 7 p.m.

Underground 119 - Vasti Jackson (blues) 9-1 a.m.

Fire - The Glitter Boys, Wild Street, Black Tora(rock) 9 p.m.

F. Jones Corner - Sherman Lee's Miss. Sound w/Anna Lee Dillon 11:30-4 a.m. $10

Belhaven Arts Center, Riverside Dr - Miss. Community Symphonic Band w/Miss. Swing 7 p.m. free, 601-605-2786 www.mcsb.us

Hal & Mal's Restaurant - Natalie Kirk & Co.

Hal & Mal's Red Room - BofusHal & Mal's Patio - Spacewolf,

Los Buddies, Andrew Fox, The Church Keys, Used Goods, Thee Party Dots (benefit) 8 p.m. $10

Soulshine, Township @ Colony Park (outside) - Soulshine Blues & Groove Fest: Ben Payton 11 a.m.; Delta Mountain Boys 12:45 p.m.; Juvenators 2:30 p.m.; Houserockers 4:15 p.m.; Fingers Taylor & the Hounds 6 p.m.; Jesse Robinson 500lb Blues Band 8:15 p.m. free/donation

Ole Tavern - The Congress, The Peoples 10 p.m.

The Auditorium - Tim Avalon & Swing de Paris 9:30 p.m. $5

Regency Hotel - Faze 4 - 8:30 p.m. Shucker's - Mike Thumb Benefit

3-7 p.m. free; Travelin' Jane Band 8-1 a.m. $5

Burgers & Blues - PhePlays Duo 7-11 p.m.

McB's - Buie, Hamman & Porter (acoustic classic rock) 7:30-11:30 p.m. free

Poets II - Santa Fe 930 Blues Cafe - Blues/Jazz 5:30-8

p.m.; Jackie Bell, 9 p.m. $10Pelican Cove - Full Sail 2-5 p.m.;

Virgil Brawley & Steve Chester (blues/roots) 7-11 p.m.

Cultural Expressions - Kamikaze & Yardboy (hip-hop/Soul) 9 p.m. $5

Fitzgerald's - Chris Gill 8-12 a.m.Huntington's - Ralph Miller 6-9 p.m.Dick & Jane's - House Party/DJ

Allen 9 p.m. $6; 18+ $10Reed Pierce's - Fade 2 Blue 9 p.m.

freeHot Shots, Byram - Karaoke

8 p.m. freeBottleneck, Ameristar - Memphis

All-Stars 8 p.m. free

MAY 23, SUNDAYKing Edward Hotel - Howard Jones

Trio (jazz brunch) 11-2 p.m. Warehouse - Mike & Marty Open

Jam Session 6-10 p.m. free

Fitzgerald's - Andy Hardwick (brunch) 11-2 p.m.

Sophia's, Fairview Inn - Knight Bruce 11 a.m. (brunch)

Zydeco - James Earl (brunch) 11-3 p.m.

Shucker's - The Rhythm Masters 3-7 p.m. free

Burgers & Blues - Chris Gill 5-9 p.m.

Pelican Cove - Hunter Gibson & Rick Moreira 3-7 p.m. free

Sam's Lounge - Diesel 255 - 9-1 a.m. myspace.com/diesel255

The Hill - Open Blues Jam 6-11 p.m.

Footloose - Karaoke 7-11 p.m. freeCultural Expressions - Open Mic

Poetry 8 p.m. $5Hot Shots, Byram - Karaoke

6-10 p.m. free

MAY 24, MONDAYHal & Mal's Restaurant - Central

Miss. Blues Society Jam 8-11 p.m. $5

F. Jones Corner - Sherman Lee Dil-lon (blues lunch) free

Fitzgerald's - Hunter Gibson & Rick Moreira 8-12 a.m. free

Martin's - Open Mic Free Jam 10 p.m. free

Fenian's - Karaoke 8-1 a.m. Dreamz - Karaoke/DJ 5:30 p.m.

MAY 25, TUESDAYF. Jones Corner - Amazing Lazy Boi

(blues lunch)MC, Swor Auditorium, Clinton -

Miss. Wind Symphony Concert 7:30 p.m. 601-925-3439, free www.mswindsymphony.com

Hal & Mal's Restaurant - Pub Quiz 8 p.m.

Fenian's - Open Mic 9 p.m. Martin's - Karaoke 10 p.m.Shucker's - The Xtremes 7-11 p.m.

freeTime Out - Open Mic 8 p.m.McB's - Karaoke 7 p.m. freeLD's Kitchen, V'burg - Blue Mon-

day Band 8:30 p.m.

MAY 26, WEDNESDAYHal & Mal's Restaurant - Singer/

Songwriter NightF. Jones Corner - Sherman Lee Dil-

lon (blues lunch) freeUnderground 119 - Emma Wynters

Trio 8-11 p.m. freeSteam Room Grille - Ms Sinatra

6 p.m.Regency Hotel - Snazz 8:30 p.m.

myspace.com/snazzband2Shucker's - DoubleShotz 7:30-11:

30 p.m. freeFootloose - Karaoke 8-12 a.m.

freeElectric Cowboy - KaraokePelican Cove - Mike & Marty (party

rock) 7 p.m.Parker House (patio) - Scott Albert

Johnson & Bob Gates (crawfish/blues) 6:30-9:30 p.m.

livemusic

6/05 John Prine - Cannon Arts Center, Memphis6/10-13 Bonnaroo: Miike Snow, XX, Ok Go, Blitzen Trapper, Tokyo Police Club, LCD Soundsystem, Flaming

Lips, Stevie Wonder, Dead Weather, Calexico, Ween, Dropkick Murphys,+ – Manchester, TN6/09 Melvins - One Eyed Jack’s, N.O.; 6/10 Bottletree, Birmingham6/09 Miike Snow - Republic, New Orleans6/12 Michael Franti - Minglewood Hall, Memphis6/16 Passion Pit / Tokyo Police Club - House of Blues, N.O.

May

20

- 26,

201

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38

WEDNESDAY 5/19

LADIES NIGHTLADIES DRINK ALL YOU CAN 8PM-12AM FOR $5 - NO COVERTHURSDAY 5/20

80’S NIGHTDIFFERENT THEME EACH WEEKFRIDAY 5/21

ROCKET 88

SATURDAY 5/22

DIRTY DOZEN BRASS BAND

SUNDAY 5/23

KARAOKEMONDAY 5/24

OPEN MIC JAMTUESDAY 5/25

MATT’S LATE NIGHT KARAOKE$2 MARGARITAS $1 HIGHLIFE & PBR

WEDNESDAY 5/26

LADIES NIGHTLADIES DRINK ALL YOU CAN 8PM-12AM FOR $5 - NO COVER

214 S. STATE ST. • 601.354.9712DOWNTOWN JACKSON

WWW.MARTINSLOUNGE.NET

ALL SHOWS 10PM UNLESS NOTED

LIVE MUSICCALENDAR

TOPTENSONGS THIS WEEK

SEVENDUST - UnravelingDROWNING POOL - Feel Like I DoTHREE DAYS GRACE - The Good LifeSTONE TEMPLE PILOTS - Between the Lines

BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE - Your Betrayal

OZZY OSBOURNE - Let Me Hear You Scream

SHAMANS HARVEST - Dragonfl yNONPOINT - MiracleCYPRESS HILL - Rise UpSKILLET - Hero

12345678910

ROCK 93.9 and FIRE present:FRAMING HENLEY

FRIDAY, MAY 28THPlus, enter to win in the

HAPPY CRAPPYCONCERT TOUR

2636 S. Gallatin Jackson, MS 39204

601-961-4747www.myspace.com/popsaroundthecorner

OPEN M-F4PM ‘ T IL

WEDNESDAY - MAY 19KARAOKE W/ MIKE MOTT

DJ DANCE PARTYLADIES NIGHT (FREE DRAFT CUP 9-11)

UPCOMING SHOW: JUNE 2NDSTONEY LARUE$10 ADVANCE, $15 AT DOOR

THURSDAY - MAY 20

SUNDAY - MAY 23

TUESDAY - MAY 25POOL LEAGUE NIGHT

8 BALL TOURNAMENT

SATURDAY - MAY 22HILLBILLY DELUX

HAPPY HOURM-TH 5-7

FRIDAY - MAY 21GHOST TOWN

venuelist61 South - Rainbow Casino 1380 Warren-

ton Rd., Vicksburg, 800-503-377788 Keys 3645 Hwy. 80 W in Metrocen-

ter, Jackson, 601-352-7342930 Blues Cafe 930 N. Congress St.,

Jackson, 601-948-3344 Alamo Theatre 333 N. Farish St, Jack-

son, 601-352-3365Alley Cats 165 W. Peace St., Canton,

601-855-2225Alumni House Sports Grill 574 Hwy. 50,

Ridgeland, 601-855-2225 America Legion Post 1 3900 W. North-

side Dr., Jackson, 601-605-9903Ameristar Casino, Bottleneck Blues

Bar 4146 Washington St., Vicksburg, 800-700-7770

Beau Rivage Casino 875 Beach Blvd., Biloxi, 800-566-7469

Belhaven College Center for the Arts 835 Riverside Dr, Jackson, 601-968-5930

Bennie’s Boom Boom Room 142 Front St., Hattiesburg, 601-408-6040

Borrello’s 1306 Washington St., Vicks-burg, 601-638-0169

Buffalo Wild Wings 808 Lake Harbour Dr., Ridgeland, 601-856-0789

Burgers and Blues 1060 E. County Line Rd., Ridgeland, 601-899-0038

Capri-Pix Theatre 3021 N. State St., Jackson, 601-981-9606

Central City Complex 609 Woodrow Wil-son Dr., Jackson, 601-352-9075

Cerami’s 5417 Highway 25, Flowood, 601-919-2829

Char Restaurant 4500 I-55, Highland Village, Jackson, 601-956-9562

Cherokee Inn 1410 Old Square Rd., Jack-son, 601-362-6388

Club 43 Hwy 43, Canton, 601-654-3419, 601-859-0512

Club City Lights 200 N. Mill St., Jack-son, 601-353-0059

Club O’Hara 364 Monticello St., Hazle-hurst, 601-894-5674

Club Total 342 N. Gallatin St., Jackson, 601-714-5992

The Commons Gallery 719 N. Congress St., 601-352-3399

Couples Entertainment Center 4511 Byrd Drive, Jackson, 601-923-9977

Crawdad Hole 1150 Lakeland Dr., Jack-son, 601-982-9299

Crickett’s Lounge 4370 Hwy 80 West, Jackson, 601-922-0500

Crossroads Bar & Lounge 3040 Livings-ton Rd., Jackson, 601-984-3755 (blues)

Cultural Expressions 147 Millsaps Ave., Jackson, 601-665-0815 (neo-soul/hip-hop)

Cups in Fondren 2757 Old Canton Road, Jackson, 601-362-7422 (acoustic/pop)

Cups in the Quarter 1855 Lakeland Dr., Jackson, 601-981-9088

Davidson’s Corner Market 108 W. Center St., Canton, 601-855-2268 (pop/rock)

Debo’s 180 Raymond Road, Jackson, 601-346-8283

Diamond Jack’s Casino 3990 Washing-ton Street, Vicksburg, 1-877-711-0677

Dick & Jane’s 206 Capitol St., Jackson, 601-944-0123 (dance/alternative)

Dixie Diamond 1306 Washington Street, Vicksburg, 601-638-6297

Dollar Bills Dance Saloon 103 A Street, Meridian, 601-693-5300

Edison Walthall Hotel 225 E. Capitol St., Jackson, 601-948-6161

Electric Cowboy 6107 Ridgewood Rd., Jackson, 601-899-5333 (country/rock/dance)

Executive Place 2440 Bailey Ave., Jack-son, 601-987-4014

F. Jones Corner 303 N. Farish St. 601-983-1148

Fenian’s 901 E. Fortification Street, Jack-son, 601-948-0055 (rock/Irish/folk)

Fire 209 Commerce St., Jackson, 601-592-1000 (rock/dance/dj)

Final Destination 5428 Robinson Rd. Ext., Jackson, (pop/rock/blues)

Fitzgerald’s Martini Bar 1001 E. County Line Road, Jackson, 601-957-2800

Flood’s Bar and Grill 2460 Bailey Ave., Jackson, 601-713-4094

Footloose Bar and Grill 4661 Hwy 80 West, Jackson, 601-922-9944

Freelon’s Bar And Groove 440 N. Mill St., Jackson, 601-353-5357 (hip-hop)

Fusion Coffeehouse Highland Colony Parkway, Ridgeland, 601-856-6001

Garfield’s Restaurant & Pub 6340 Ridge-wood Court, Jackson, 601-977-9920

Gold Strike Casino 1010 Casino Center Drive, Robinsonville, 888-245-7529

Grand Casino Biloxi 280 Beach Boule-vard, Biloxi, 228-436-2946

Grand Casino Tunica 13615 Old Highway 61 North, Robinsonville, 800-39-GRAND

The Green Room 444 Bounds St., Jack-son, 601-713-3444

Ground Zero Blues Club 0 Blues Alley, Clarksdale, 662-621-9009

Grownfolks’s Lounge 4030 Medgar Evers Blvd, Jackson, 601-362-6008

Hal & Mal’s 200 S. Commerce St., Jack-son, 601-948-0888 (pop/rock/blues)

Hamp’s Place 3028 W. Northside Dr., Jackson, 601-981-4110 (dance/dj)

Hard Rock Biloxi 777 Beach Blvd., Biloxi, 228-374-ROCK

Hat & Cane 1115 E. McDowell Rd., Jack-son, 601-352-0411

Hauté Pig 1856 Main St., Madison, 601-853-8538

Here We Go Again 3002 Terry Road, Jackson, 601-373-1520

The Hill Restaurant 2555 Valley St., Jackson, 601-373-7768

Horizon Casino Mulberry Lounge 1310 Mulberry St., Vicksburg, 800-843-2343

Horseshoe Bar 5049 Hwy 80 West, Jack-son, 601-922-6191

Horseshoe Casino Tunica, 800-303-7463The Hunt Club 1525 Ellis Ave., Jackson,

601-944-1150Huntington Grille 1001 E. County Line

Rd., Jackson, 601-957-1515The Ice House 515 S. Railroad Blvd.,

McComb, 601-684-0285 (pop/rock)JC’s 425 North Mart Plaza, Jackson,

601-362-3108James Meredith Lounge 217 Griffith St.

601-969-3222Julep Restaurant and Bar 105 Highland

Village, Jackson, 601-362-1411Kathryn’s Steaks and Seafood 6800 Old

Canton Road, Ridgeland. 601-956-2803Koinonia Coffee House 136 S. Adam St.,

Suite C, Jackson, 601-960-3008LaRae’s 210 Parcel Dr., Jackson,

601-944-0660Last Call Sports Grill 1428 Old Square

Road, Jackson, 601-713-2700The Library Bar & Grill 120 S. 11th St.,

Oxford, 662-234-1411The Loft 1306 A. Washington St., Vicks-

burg, 601-629-6188The Lyric Oxford 1006 Van Buren Ave.,

Oxford. 662-234-5333Main Event Sports Bar & Grill 4659

Hwy 80 West, Jackson, 601-922-9987Manda’s Pub 614 Clay Street, Vicksburg,

601-638-6607Martin’s Lounge 214 S. State St., Jack-

son, 601-354-9712 (rock/jam/blues)McB’s Restaurant 815 Lake Harbor Dr.,

Ridgeland, 601-956-8362 (pop/rock)Mellow Mushroom 275 Dogwood Blvd.,

Flowood, 601-992-7499Mississippi Academy of Ancient Music

103 Magnolia, Edwards, 601-977-7736 Mississippi Coliseum 1207 Mississippi

St., Jackson, 601-353-0603Mississippi Opera P.O. Box 1551, Jack-

son, 877-MSOPERA, 601-960-2300Mississippi Opry 2420 Old Brandon

Rd., Brandon, 601-331-6672 Mississippi Symphony Orchestra 201 East

Pascagoula St., Jackson, 800-898-5050Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium

2531 N. State St., Jackson, 601-354-6021Monte’s Steak and Seafood 1855 Lake-

land Dr., Jackson, 601-362-8182Mugshots 1855 Lakeland Dr., Jackson,

601-713-0383North Midtown Arts Center 121 Mill-

saps Ave., Jackson, 601-497-7454 Okasions 1766 Ellis Avenue, Jackson,

601-373-4037Old Venice Pizza Co. 1428 Old Square

Rd., Jackson, 601-366-6872Ole Tavern on George Street 416

George St., Jackson, 601-960-2700

Olga’s 4760 I-55 North, Jackson, 601-366-1366 (piano)

One to One Studio 121 Millsaps Ave., in the Millsaps Arts District, Jackson

One Blue Wall 2906 N State St., Jack-son, 601-713-1224

Peaches Restaurant 327 N. Farish St., Jackson, 601-354-9267

Pelican Cove 3999A Harborwalk Dr., Ridgeland, 601-605-1865

Pig Ear Saloon 160 Weisenberger Rd., Gluckstadt, 601-898-8090

Pig Willies 1416 Washington St., Vicks-burg, 601-634-6872

Pool Hall 3716 I-55 North Frontage Rd., Jackson, 601-713-2708

Pop’s Saloon 2636 Gallatin St., Jackson, 601-961-4747 (country)

Proud Larry’s 211 S. Lamar Blvd., Oxford, 662-236-0050

The Pub Hwy. 51, Ridgeland, 601-898-2225

The Quarter Bistro & Piano Bar 1855 Lakeland Dr., Jackson, 601-362-4900

Que Sera Sera 2801 N. State St., Jack-son, 601-981-2520

Red Room 200 S. Commerce St., Jackson (Hal & Mal’s), 601-948-0888 (rock/alt.)

Reed Pierce’s 6791 Siwell Rd., Byram, 601-376-0777, 601-376-4677

Regency Hotel Restaurant & Bar 420 Greymont Ave., Jackson, 601-969-2141

Rick’s Cafe 318 Hwy 82 East, #B, Starkville, 662-324-7425

RJ Barrel 111 N. Union 601-667-3518Sal and Mookie’s 565 Taylor St. 601-

368-1919Sam’s Lounge 5035 I-55 N. Frontage

Rd., Jackson, 601-983-2526Sam’s Town Casino 1477 Casino Strip

Blvd., Robinsonville, 800-456-0711Schimmel’s Fine Dining 2615 N. State

St., Jackson, 601-981-7077Scrooge’s 5829 Ridgewood Rd., Jackson,

601-206-1211Shuckers on the Reservoir 116 Cones-

toga Rd., Ridgeland, 601-853-0105 Silver Star Casino Hwy. 16 West, Choc-

taw, 800-557-0711Soop’s The Ultimate 1205 Country Club

Dr., Jackson, 601-922-1402 (blues)Soulshine Pizza 1139 Old Fannin Rd.,

Brandon, 601-919-2000Soulshine Pizza 1111 Highland Colony

Parkway, Ridgeland, 601-856-8646Sportsman’s Lodge 1220 E. Northside

Dr. at I-55, Jackson, 601-366-5441 Steam Room Grille 5402 Interstate-55

Frontage Road. 601-899-8588Stone Pony Oyster Bar 116 Commercial

Parkway, Canton, 601-859-0801Super Chikan’s Place 235 Yazoo Ave.,

Clarksdale, 662-627-7008Thalia Mara Hall 255 E. Pascagoula St.,

Jackson, 601-960-1535Thirsty Hippo 211 Main St.,

Hattiesburg, 601-583-9188Time Out Sports Bar 6270 Old Canton

Rd., 601-978-1839Top Notch Sports Bar 109 Culley Dr.,

Jackson, 601- 362-0706Touch Night Club 105 E. Capitol St.,

Jackson, 601-969-1110Two Rivers Restaurant 1537 W. Peace

St., Canton, 601-859-9979 (blues)Two Sisters Kitchen 707 N. Congress

St. 601-353-1180Two Stick 1107 Jackson Ave., Oxford,

662-236-6639Tye’s 120 N. Congress St., Jackson, 601-

949-3434Under the Boardwalk 2560 Terry Rd.,

Jackson, 601-371-7332Underground 119 119 S. President St. 601-

352-2322VB’s Premier Sports Bar 1060 County

Line Rd., Ridgland, 601-572-3989VFW Post 9832 4610 Sunray Drive, Jack-

son, 601-982-9925Vicksburg Convention Center 1600 Mul-

berry Street, Vicksburg, 866-822-6338Walker’s Drive-In 3016 N. State St.,

Jackson, 601-982-2633 (jazz/pop/folk)The Warehouse 9347 Hwy 18 West,

Jackson, 601-502-8580 (pop/rock)Wired Expresso Cafe 115 N. State St.

601-500-7800

jack

sonf

reep

ress

.com

39

Parking now on side of building

Open for dinner Sat. 4-10pm

Open Mon-Sat, Kitchen open Mon-Fri11am-10pm & Sat 4-10pm

LUCEROw/ Taylor

Hildebrand

thursday MAY 20

friday MAY 21

OPEN MICwith Cody Cox*DOLLAR BEER*

saturday MAY 22

tuesday MAY 25

wednesday MAY 26

KICK ASSKARAOKEw/ KJ JOOSY

Congress withTHE PEOPLES

LADIES NIGHTwith MR. NICK!LADIES DRINK FREEWELLS & PONIES 9PM-2AM

FREE WiFi

Weekly Lunch Specials

WED.LADIES NIGHT

& KARAOKETHURS.

BUDWEISERGAMESNIGHT

PRIZES & FREE SCHWAG

FRI.LAZY BOY

BLUES9:30PM - 1:30AMNO COVER CHARGECOLLEGE NIGHTBRING STUDENT ID

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It’s diffi cult to write about spring food when it’s wet and cold outside—when the groundhog is predicting that a lovely, warm spring is not “right around the cor-

ner.” Because of a bizarre travel schedule, I am writing this article way ahead of time (while it is still winter) and through the magic of the print media, you are reading it in the spring.

Despite the fact that you are probably perusing this page while lounging in the sun on some warm patch of green grass, wearing a T-shirt and cut-off jeans, I wrote it in fl an-nel PJs staring at a barren brown lawn and a pecan tree that hasn’t seen leaves in quite some time. Because of this circumstance, the topic of this piece evaded me for quite a while. I thought about Easter and perhaps a coy recipe for Lapin au Vin, but I didn’t want to come off too snarky and make children cry. Pasta primavera? Too predictable. Devilled eggs? Way overdone.

After abandoning my keyboard numer-ous times and drinking one too many cups of Cuban coffee, it came to me in a series of over-caffeinated fl ashes: something cooked on the grill, yes! Vegetables cooked on the grill, yes, yes! Vegetables cooked on the grill and made into a salsa, yes, yes, yes! So without any fur-ther delay, here is a dish to welcome spring and all its bubbly enthusiasm, along with a cocktail to help you celebrate all that is fresh and new.

I love to combine the fl avors of the Far East with those of the Southwest. Both cook-ing traditions incorporate bold spices along with a balance of heat/salt/sweet/acid. In this dish, the pork receives the Asian treatment and the salsa takes its cues from the Southwest.

Our cocktail is a variation on a New Or-leans favorite: the Ramos Gin Fizz, invented in New Orleans in 1888 by Henry Ramos.

Ramos moved to New Orleans from Baton Rouge and purchased a bar called the Imperial Cabinet. Locals called the place “the Cabinet” and fl ocked there to order Ramos’ signature drink, the New Orleans Fizz. In later years, when other bars started copying his drink, Ramos left the Cabinet and opened The Stag where he changed the name of the

beverage to refl ect his own moniker. The drink and the new bar proved so

popular that Ramos employed up to 35 “shak-er boys” per shift to stand behind the bar and create these frothy concoctions. Even with this army of shakers, during the 1915 Mardi Gras season, newspapers reported lines stretching around the block and customers waiting up to an hour to sample “the drink that tastes like a fl ower,” as one patron described it.

Be patient when making these cocktails. They are defi nitely old school and require time and effort to get right. When you do, you’ll fi nd it’s well worth the wait. The recipe calls for raw egg whites. Some people get a little frightened by this, so you can substitute pow-dered egg whites if you desire.

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Leaping into Spring2 pork tenderloins1/2 cup soy sauce1/2 cup rice-wine vinegar1/2 cup sake1 medium root fresh ginger3 tablespoon honey1 tablespoon coriander seeds1 tablespoon anise seeds4 prunes

Remove silver skin from tenderloins and discard. Peel and thinly slice the ginger. Roughly chop the prunes. Com-bine all ingredients in one-gallon zip-top plastic bag. Make sure you remove the air from the bag and that the tenderloins are completely immersed in the liquid. One way to accomplish this is to leave the top of the bag open and slowly lower the bag (bottom fi rst) into a sink full of water until just the top of the bag is out of the water. Quickly close the bag and remove from the water. Place the bag in the refrig-erator for at least four hours (overnight would be optimum).

Grill the tenderloins for about 16 minutes, turning a quarter turn every four minutes. This time can be adjusted according to their size. They are ready to come off the grill when a thermometer inserted into the center of the meat reads 145 degrees. Remove when done, cover with foil and allow to rest for ten minutes before carving. Spoon the salsa onto the bottom of a large platter. Slice the tenderloin on a bias and place the pieces on top of the salsa. Garnish with remaining chopped cilantro.

dining by Tom Ramsey

ROBERT

S. DO

NO

VAN

2 large tomatoes1 red onion1 large yellow onion1 whole head of garlic1 green bell pepper1 yellow or orange bell pepper1 bunch of cilantro1 jalapeno pepper1 bunch of green onions1 ear white corn1 ear yellow corn2 tablespoons vinegar4 tablespoons olive oil2 limes1 ounce of tequila blancoSalt

Finely chop the tomatoes, garlic and cilantro, reserving about a tablespoon of the chopped cilantro for garnish. Remove

the husks from the corn. Mince the jala-peno pepper. Reserve the seeds for hot salsa or discard them for a mild salsa. Slice the onions and the peppers into 1/2-inch thick rings.

Use half the olive oil to brush the onions, peppers, green onions and corn, and place them on the grill. Cook the vegetables until they begin to soften but retain some crispness. This should take just a few minutes and can be done while the pork is resting. Remove the vegetables and chop the onions, peppers and green onions. Slice the corn from the cob into a large bowl and combine with all other vegetables. Add vinegar, remaining olive oil, juice from the limes and tequila. Toss all ingredients and add salt as desired.

RAMOS GIN FIZZ

2 ounces of dry gin1 tablespoon of pow-

dered sugar1 ounce of heavy cream1 egg white1 tablespoon fresh lime

juice1 lime1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice4 drops orange fl ower waterSeltzer water (chilled)Ice cubes

Put your serving glasses in the freezer at least ten minutes before making this cocktail.

Cut the lime into thin wedges for garnish. Fill cocktail shaker with ice cubes one third full. Combine all in-gredients, except for the seltzer water, in the shaker. Close tightly and shake vigorously for at least two minutes or until the mixture is frothy. Strain into a chilled glass and top with an ounce or two of chilled seltzer water. Garnish the glass with a thin slice of lime.

CH

RIS PALM

ER

GRILLED SALSA FRESCA

GRILLED GINGER MARINATED PORK(Serves 8)

PEANUT BUTTER WHITE MOCHA Cups fresh roasted espresso blended with ghirardelli white chocolate, steamed milk and all natural peanut butter monin.

ICED MINT COFFEE BREVE Traditional cold drip french roast iced coffee, blended with half-and-half and sweetened with all natural frosted mint monin.

LONDON FOG Earl Grey tea steeped in steamed milk and sweetened with all natural vanilla monin.

SUGAR FREE PENGUIN MOCHA Cups fresh roasted espresso, blended with steamed skim milk and sweetened with sugar-free white chocolate and sugar-free chocolate monin.

RED HEAD Au lait made with Cups fresh roasted coffee blended with steamed milk, creamy caramel and all natural cinnamon monin. A Cups Original!

DAISY MAE Cups classic creamy vanilla frozen treat blended with all natural strawberry monin.

Spring in a Cup!

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41DINE LOCAL, see pg. 42

COFFEE HOUSESCups Espresso Café (Multiple Locations, www.cupsespressocafe.com)Jackson’s local group of coffeehouses offer high-end Arabica beans, a wide variety of espresso drinks, fresh brewed coffee and a selection of pastries and baked goods. Free wi-fi !

Wired Espresso Café (115 N State St 601-500-7800)This downtown coffeehouse across from the Old Capitol focuses on being a true gathering place, featuring great coffee and a selection of breakfast, lunch and pastry items. Free wi-fi .

BAKERYCrazy Cat Bakers (Highland Village Suite #173 601-362-7448 & Fondren Corner Bldg)Amazing sandwiches: Meatloaf Panini, Mediterranean Vegetarian, Rotisserie Chicken to gourmet pimento cheese. Outlandish desserts. Now open in Fondren Corner on North State Street.

Broad Street Bakery (4465 Interstate 55 N. 601-362-2900)NEW MENU! Hot breakfast,coffee espresso drinks, fresh breads and pastries, gourmet deli sand-wiches, quiches, soups, pizzas, pastas and dessert. A “see and be seen” Jackson institution!

Campbellʼs Bakery (3013 N State Street 601-362-4628)Now serving lunch! Cookies, cakes and cupcakes are accompanied by good coffee and a full-cooked Southern breakfast on weekdays in this charming bakery in Fondren.

For Heavenʼs Cakes (4950 Old Canton Road 601-991-2253)Cakes and cupcakes for all occasions including weddings, parties, catered events. Owner Dani Mitchell Turk was features on the Food Network’s ultimate recipe showdown.

ITALIANBasilʼs Belhaven (904 E. Fortifi cation, Jackson, 601-352-2002)The signature Paninis are complimented by great Italian offerings such as spaghetti and meatball, tomato basil soup, cookies and cupcakes. Dinner menu includes fresh tilapia, shrimp and risotto, seafood pasta, generous salads—and don’t forget the crab cakes. Party menu includes a “panini pie.” BYOB.

BRAVO! (4500 Interstate 55 N., Jackson, 601-982-8111)Wood-fi red pizzas, vegetarian fare, plus creative pastas, beef, and seafood specials. Wonderful atmo-sphere and service. Bravo! walks away with tons of Best of Jackson awards every year.

Ceramiʼs (5417 Lakeland Drive, Flowood, 601-919-28298)Southern-style Italian cuisine features their signature Shrimp Cerami (white wine sauce, capers artichokes) along with veal, tilapia, crawfi sh, chicken and pasta dishes. Now with liquor license!

Fratesiʼs (910 Lake Harbour, Ridgeland, 601-956-2929)“Authentic, homey, unpretentious” that’s how the regulars describe Fratesi’s, a staple in Jackson for years, offering great Italian favorites with loving care. The tiramisu is a must-have!

BARBEQUEHickory Pit Barbeque (1491 Canton Mart Rd. 601-956-7079)The “Best Butts in Town” features BBQ chicken, beef and pork sandwiches along with burgers and po’boys. Wet or dry pork ribs, chopped pork or beef, and all the sides.

Lumpkins BBQ (182 Raymond Rd. Jackson 866-906-0942)Specializing in smoked barbeque, Lumpkin’s offers all your favorites for on-site family dining or for catered events, including reunions, offi ce events, annivesaries, weddings and more.Rib Shack B.B.Q. & Seafood (932 J.R. Lynch Street, Jackson, 601-665-4952)Hickory-smoked BBQ beef or pork ribs, BBQ chicken, giant chopped BBQ beef or pork sandwich-es. Fried catfi sh, pan trout, fried shrimp, po boys. Tues-Thurs (11-8pm) Fri-Sat (11-10pm).

BARS, PUBS & BURGERSAlumni House (574 Hwy 51 Ridgeland 601-605-9903, 110 Bass Pro, Pearl, 601-896-0253)Good bar food, big portions and burgers (with “blackened” as an option) known for their sweet buns. Televisions throughout, even small tubes at your table. Po-boys, quesadillas; good stuff!Fenianʼs Pub (901 E. Fortifi cation St. 601-948-0055)Classic Irish pub featuring a menu of traditional food, pub sandwiches and beers including Guin-ness and Harp on tap. Free live music most nights; Irish/Celtic bands on Thursdays.

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Poets Two(1855 Lakeland Drive, Suite H-10, 601-364-9411)Pub fare at its fi nest. Crabcake minis, fried dills, wings, poppers, ultimate fries, sandwiches, po-boys, pasta entrees and steak. The signature burgers come in bison, kobe, beef or turkey! Happy hour everyday til 7 p.m.

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Cool Alʼs (4654 McWillie, 601-713-3020)A standard in Best of Jackson, Al’s stacked, messy, decadent, creative burgers defy adjectives. Or try pineapple chicken, smoked sausage...or the nationally recognized veggie burger.

Fitzgeralds at the Hilton (1001 East County Line Road, 601-957-2800)Top-shelf bar food with a Gulf Coast twist like Gumbo Ya Ya, Pelahatchie artisan sausage and cheese antipasto. Grilled oysters; fried stuff—oysters, catfi sh, shrimp, seafood or chicken! Hal and Malʼs (200 S. Commerce St. 601-948-0888)Pub favorites meet Gulf Coast and Cajun specialties like red beans and rice, the Oyster Platter or each day’s blackboard special. Repeat winner of Best of Jackson’s “Best Place for Live Music.”Last Call (3716 I-55 N. Frontage Road 601-713-2700)Burgers, sandwiches and po-boys, plus sports-bar appetizers and specialities. Try chili cheese fries, chicken nachos or the shrimp & pork eggrolls. Pay-per-view sporting events, live bands.Martinʼs Restaurant and Lounge (214 South State Street 601-354-9712)Lunch specials, pub appetizers (jalapeno poppers, cheezsticks, fried pickles) or order from the full menu of po-boys and entrees. Full bar, massive beer selection and live music most nights.Shuckerʼs Oyster Bar (116 Conestoga Road, Ridgeland 601-853-0105)Serious about oysters? Try ‘em on the half shell, deep-fried, charred from the oven or baked in champagne. Plus po-boys, pub favorites, burgers, mufalettas, pizza, seafood and steaks!The Regency (400 Greymont Ave. 601-969-2141)Reasonably priced buffet Monday through Friday featuring all your favorites. Daily happy hour, live bands and regular specials.Time Out Sports Café (6720 Old Canton Road 601-978-1839)14 TVs, 1 projector and two big-screens. Daily $9 lunch specials, pub-style appetizers, burgers, seafood and catfi sh po-boys, salads, and hot entrees including fi sh, steak and pasta.

Ole Tavern on George Street (416 George St. 601-960-2700)Pub food with a southern fl air: beer-battered onion rings, chicken & sausage gumbo, salads, sandwiches and weekly lunch specials. Plus, happy hour 4-7pm Monday through Friday.Pelican Cove Grill (3999A Harbor Walk Drive 601-605-1865)Great rez view! Shrimp and seafood appetizers, soups, salads, burgers and sandwiches, plus po-boys, catfi sh baskets, and dinners from the grill including mahi-mahi and reggae ribs.

Sportsmanʼs Lodge (1120 E Northside Dr. in Maywood Mart) 601-366-5441Voted Best Sports Bar in 2010, Sportman’s doesn’t disappoint with plenty of gut-pleasing sand-wiches, and fried seafood baskets. Try the award-winning wings in Buffalo, Thai or Jerk sauces!Underground 119 (119 South President St. 601-352-2322)Jumbo lump crabcakes, crab quesadillas, beef tenderloin parfaits, orange-garlic shrimp, even “lol-lipop” lamb chops. Add a full bar and mix in great music. Opens 4 p.m.-until, Wed-Sat.

ASIANSTIX (109 Marketplace Lane off Lakeland Dr Flowood 601-420-4058) Enjoy the quick-handed, knife-wielding chefs at the fl aming teppanyaki grill; artful presentations of sushi; the pungent seasonings and spicy fl avors of regional Chinese cuisines.

Nagoya (6351 I-55 North #131 @ Target Shopping Ctr. 601-977-8881)Nagoya gets high marks for its delicious-and-affordable sushi offerings, tasty lunch specials and high-fl ying hibachi room with satisfying fl avors for the whole family.

Ichiban (153 Ridge Drive, Ste 105F 601-919-0097 & 359 Ridgeway 601-919-8879)Voted “Best Chinese” in 2010, cuisine styles at Ichiban actually range from Chinese to Japanese, including hibachi, sushi made fresh with seafood, and a crowd-pleasing buffet.

SOUTHERN CUISINEMimiʼs Family and Friends (3139 North State Street, Fondren) 601-366-6111Funky local art decorates this new offering in Fondren, where the cheese grits, red beans & rice, pork tacos and pimento cheese are signature offerings. Breakfast and lunch, Mon-Sat.

Julep (1305 East Northside Drive, Highland Village, 601-362-1411)Tons of Best of Jackson awards, delicious Southern fusion dishes like award-winning fried chicken, shrimp and grits, blackened tuna and butter bean hummus. Brunch, lunch, dinner and late night.Primos Cafe (515 Lake Harbour 601-898-3400 and 2323 Lakeland 601-936-3398)A Jackson institution featuring a full breakfast (with grits and biscuits), blue plate specials, cat-fi sh, burgers, prime rib, oysters, po-boys and wraps. Save room for something from the bakery.Poʼ Polks (4865 N. State Street 601-366-2160)Great home-style cookin’ open Mon-Sat for a $4.95 lunch. Chopped steak and gravy, Fried chicken, smothered pork chops, catfi sh, pan trout, BBQ rib tips, plus sides galore!Sugarʼs Place (168 W Griffi th St 601-352-2364)Hot breakfast and weekday lunch: catfi sh, pantrout, fried chicken wings, blue plates, red beans & rice, pork chops, chicken & dumplings, burgers, po-boys...does your grandma cook like this?

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The Strawberry Café (107 Depot Drive, Madison, 601-856-3822)Full table service, lunch and dinner. Crab and crawfish appetizers, salads, fresh seafood, pastas, “surf and turf” and more. Veggie options. Desserts: cheesecake, Madison Mud and strawberry shortcake.

Two Sisters Kitchen (707 N. Congress St. 601-353-1180)2010 Best of Jackson winner for fried chicken offers a sumptious buffet of your choice of veggies, a salad bar, iced tea & one of three homemade desserts. Lunch only. M-F 11-2, Sun. 10:30-2.

STEAK, SEAFOOD & FINE DININGHuntington Grille at the Hilton (1001 East County Line Road 601--957-1515)Chef Luis Bruno offers fresh Gulf seafood, unique game dishes and succulent steaks alongside an expansive wine selection; multiple honors from Best of Jackson, Wine Specator and others.

Schimmelʼs (2615 N. State St. 601-981-7077)Creative southern fusion dishes at attractive prices make the appointed dining room that much more enticing. Daily lunch specials, red beans and rice, angus burgers.

Steam Room Grille (5402 I-55 North 601--899-8588)Known for seafood featuring steamed lobster, crab, shrimp and combo patters. Grilled specialities include shrimp, steaks, and kabobs. Fresh fish fried seafood, lunch menu, catering, live music.

MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EASTERNAladdin Mediterranean Grill (730 Lakeland Drive 601-366-6033)Delicious authentic dishes including lamb dishes, hummus, falafel, kababs, shwarma and much more. Consistent award winner, great for takeout or for long evenings with friends.

Jerusalem Café (2741 Old Canton Road 601-321-8797)Yes, it’s a hookah bar in Jackson, which also happens to have a great Meditterean menu, in-cluding falafel, lamb shank, feta salad, kabob, spinach pie, grape leaves and baba ghanouj.

Kristos (971 Madison Ave @ Hwy 51, Madison, 601-605-2266)Home of the famous Greek meatball! Hummus, falafel, dolmas, pita sandwiches, salads, plus seasoned curly fries (or sweet potato fries) and amazing desserts.

Petra Cafe (104 West Leake Street, Clinton 601-925-0016)Mediterranean and Lebanese cuisine in the charm of Olde Towne Clinton. Stuffed grape leaves, spinach pie, shrimp kabobs, greek salads, hummus and more. Lunch and dinner served seven days a week.

PIZZAMellow Mushroom (275 Dogwood Blvd, Flowood, 601-992-7499)Pizzas of all kinds, munchies, calzones, grilled hoagies, salads and more make up the extensive and “eclectic” menu at Mellow Mushroom. Award-winning beer selection. Dine in or carry out.

The Pizza Shack (1220 N State St. 601-352-2001)2009 and 2010’s winner of Best Pizza offers the perfect pizza-and-a-beer joint. Creative pizza options abound (“Cajun Joe, anyone?”), along with sandwiches, wings, salads and even BBQ.

Sal & Mookieʼs (565 Taylor St. 601-368-1919)Pizzas of all kinds plus pasta, eggplant parmesan and the local favorite: fried ravioli. Voted Best Chef, Best Dessert, Best Kid’s Menu and Best Ice Cream in the 2010 Best of Jackson reader poll.

CARRIBBEANTaste of the Island (436 E. Capitol, Downtown, 601-360-5900)Jerk chicken or ribs, curry chicken or shrimp, oxtails, snapper or goat, plus bok choy, steamed cabbage and Jamaican Greens, Carry out, counter seating or delivery available. 11a-7p.

VEGETARIANHigh Noon Café (2807 Old Canton Road in Rainbow Plaza 601-366-1513)Fresh, gourmet, tasty and healthy defi nes the lunch options at Jackson’s own strict vegetarian (and very-vegan-friendly) restaurant. Daily lunch specials -- like Mexican day and the seaside cakes on Fridays -- push the envelope on creative and healthy; wonderful desserts!

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THURSDAY, MAY 20 College baseball, Auburn at Ole Miss (6:30 p.m., Oxford, 97.3 FM): The Tigers and Rebels open a series that could decide who wins the SEC West.

FRIDAY, MAY 21 College baseball, Memphis at Southern Miss (6:30 p.m., Hatties-burg): The Golden Eagles are still in the hunt for the second seed in the C-USA Tournament and an NCAA berth.

SATURDAY, MAY 22 College baseball, Mississippi State at LSU (7 p.m., Baton Rouge, La., CSS, 105.9 FM): The Bulldogs’ lost season is almost over, but they could still ruin the Tigers’ season.

SUNDAY, MAY 24 Southern League baseball, Hunts-ville at Mississippi (2:05 p.m., Pearl, 103.9 FM): OK, you can’t buy beer at the T-P on Sundays, but it wouldn’t hurt you to get outdoors for once.

MONDAY, MAY 24 College baseball, Ferriss Trophy presentation (6:30 p.m., Cleveland): Who will win the award for Mississip-pi’s top player: Southern Miss pitcher Todd McInnis, Ole Miss pitcher Drew Pomeranz or Mississippi State fi rst base-man Connor Powers? Drew Pomeranz, but act like you’re surprised.

TUESDAY, MAY 25NBA basketball, Western fi nals, Los

Angeles Lakers at Phoenix (8 p.m., TNT): The Lakers and Los Suns meet in what could be the deciding Game 4. Keep your ID handy in case the cops stop you, Pau Gasol.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 26 College baseball, SEC Tournament, Ole Miss vs. TBD (time TBA, Hoover, Ala., SportSouth or CSS, 97.3 FM): The Rebels will begin their quest for the SEC title and a possible regional in Oxford. … C-USA Tournament, Southern Miss vs. TBD (time TBA, Houston): The Golden Eagles are trying to position themselves for an NCAA bid. A conference title would be a nice way to do that. The Slate is compiled by Doctor S, who’s drinking a lot of gin and tonics. It’s malaria season, y’know. Inoculate yourself against sports scurvy at JFP Sports at www.jacksonfreepress.com.

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In a state like Mississippi with short winters and long, humid summers, baseball reigns, football is cherished, and the kid down the road practices endlessly to be the next

Michael Jordan. With the exception of the Winter Olympics, Mississippians often don’t take notice of ice hockey. That might change now that the Gulf Coast is home to one of the premier teams in the Southern Professional Hockey League: the Mississippi Surge.

Based in Biloxi, the team plays at the former home of the Mississippi Sea Wolves: the Mississippi Coast Coliseum. On March 25, 2010, the Surge captured the William B. Coffey Trophy as the SPHL’s Regular Season Champions in its fi rst season, with little fan-fare. After only nine months, the Surge has grabbed attention for better reasons than its insensitive name and amateurish logos.

The franchise’s fi rst season began inauspi-ciously. Through the fi rst 32 pages, the Surge went 15-17. The team then went 14-2, clos-ing the gap with the league’s best teams. In the playoffs, the Surge beat the Columbus, Ga., Cottonmouths in a 3-2 series.

A few weeks later, the team lost the championship series to the Huntsville, Ala., Havoc. The Havoc swept the Surge in three games, a come-from-behind 3-2 victory in Game 2 and a one-point victory in Game 3. The Surge’s inability to convert on power plays doomed the team.

The team’s long-term viability, though, will depend on securing a larger fan base. With an average of 2,250 tickets sold per game and 74,223 for the entire season, attendance for the Surge has been disappointing. Despite being the regular season champions, the team ranked next to last in league attendance.

During the 2009-2010 season, the league champion Havoc averaged 1,200 more tickets per game and 24,000 tickets per season. The league average was 3,041 per game, almost 800 more than the Surge sold. Those numbers are skewed by the fact that Biloxi has only a third of the population of Lafayette, Augusta, Huntsville and three other SPHL cities. Com-pounding the problem is the area’s unfamiliar-ity with the new franchise.

Professional hockey in the state dates back to the fi rst match by the Sea Wolves 13 years ago, so there is optimism for the Biloxi franchise’s long-term success. The team is still

building a relationship with the community, regularly holding charity fundraisers and team introductory sessions on the Gulf Coast. As an example of the Surge’s inventive com-munity building, the team wore pink game jerseys during a game in late February to raise awareness for breast cancer. The jerseys were then auctioned off, with proceeds going to Gulfport’s Memorial Hospital.

Few in the organization can claim as much responsibility for the Surge’s early suc-cess as Steffon Walby. Walby is part owner, general manager and head coach of the Surge. Before joining the Surge, he was a fi xture on the Sea Wolves team and, after retiring as a player, its coaching staff. As an 11-year veteran player for the Sea Wolves, he played on fi ve All-Star teams and scored 687 points. Today, his goal is to make the Mississippi Surge a suc-cessful franchise and keep it from suffering the same fate as the Sea Wolves.

Walby notes: “Attendance is building, and hockey is very popular on the Gulf Coast. After Katrina, people had to adjust, but at-tendance is improving.” Walby describes the Surge as “fun, affordable, family entertainment and heavily involved in the community.”

After the sweep by the Huntsville Havoc, the Surge fell short of clinching the SPHL President’s Cup, but many members of the team earned individual honors. Defenseman Steve Weidlich and goaltender Bill Zaniboni made it to the All-SPHL First Team, and for-wards Matt Zultek and Mike Richard are on the All-SPHL Second Team.

A native of Edmonton, Alberta, Wei-dlich has had an especially stellar record this year. Beating all defensemen in the league with 42 points, 36 assists and 26 power-play assists, Weidlich also earned the league’s Defenseman of the Year award.

Similarly, Goaltender Zaniboni, a three-year veteran from Plymouth, Mass., was named the league’s Goaltender of the Year, after acquiring four shutouts, a 2.48 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage. Individual honors did not end with the play-ers, however, when Coach Walby received the 2010 SPHL Coach of the Year award.

As for next year, Walby says that the goals are simple: “To continue what we accom-plished this year, get the core group of guys to come back and win the championship.”

Mississippi’s Ice Hockey Teamsports by Diandra Hosey

Doctor S sez: You know it’s almost summer: the fi rst MLB manager just got fi red.

CO

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ESY

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The Mississippi Surge capitalized on a strong season to secure the William B. Coffey Trophy, awarded to the regular-season champions of the Southern Professional Hockey League.

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Across 1 Word after rubber or brass5 They eject matter, theoretically15 Sunburn remedy16 Make all the same, to a Brit17 City in central Arizona18 Reconciliations19 Canned20 Gets comfy, perhaps21 Spanish equivalent of Mmes.23 Amtrak stop: abbr.24 Hwy.25 Doofuses28 Circus precaution29 From Sumatra or Timor, old-style34 Leather shoe, for short35 “In that case...”36 As predicted37 Coup d’___39 Athletic supporter?40 Isolated places42 Crafty43 Designation for driver’s licenses44 Like dog kisses

45 Opposite of NNE48 Israeli singer Naim with the 2008 hit “New Soul”49 Skating show52 Long stare56 Logical philosopher57 Finito58 Type of job that pays the lowest, usually59 Cartoon explorer60 2000 Sting duet with Cheb Mami61 Spoiled kid

Down 1 College football champs2 Sean’s foil on “Celebrity Jeopardy!”3 Deviated septum site4 Unstoppable regarding5 Comment about the pretentious6 “It’s ___ hell in here”7 “Everything’s fi ne”8 Vocal qualities9 Discharge10 Masters of the Universe leader

11 Cash for strippers12 They may include lyrics13 Station wagons, in England14 Part of a sonnet22 Diamond stat25 Opus ___26 Ice cream shop option27 Writing for grades30 “Fingerprinting” sample31 Netherlands-based tribunal, for short32 Black and white bird33 English city known for coal and beer34 Hard rock guitar legends, to some38 Airport screening org.41 The A of IPA42 Ran a check card45 Mythical horn-dog46 Tipped over47 Go back and forth48 Survey answers, sometimes50 Wax, in French51 Il ___ (operatic pop group)53 Company that comes a-calling54 Number in the Cookie Monster song “They Not Take That Away From Me”55 Part of QED

©2010 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com)For answers to this puzzle, call: 1-900-226-2800, 99 cents per minute. Must be 18+. Or to bill toyour credit card, call: 1-800-655-6548. Reference puzzle #0461.

“Freefillin’”—take the plunge into random vocab.

BY MATT JONES

“Sum Sudoku”Put one digit from 1-9 in each square of this Sudoku so that the following three conditions are met: 1) each row, col-umn, and 3x3 box (as marked by shading in the grid) contains the digits 1ñ9 exactly one time; 2) no digit is repeated within any of the areas marked off by heavy black lines; and 3) the sums of the numbers in each area marked off by heavy black lines total the little number given in each of those areas. For example, the digits in the upper-rightmost square in the grid and the square directly to its left will add up to 7. Now quit wastin’ my time and solve!!!

BY MATT JONES

Last Week’s Answers

Last Week’s Answers

EMINI (May 21-June 20)When Paul McCartney fi rst got the inspiration to write the song “Yesterday,” he had

the melody and rhythm but couldn’t get a feel for what the lyrics should be. For a while, as he was waiting for the missing words to pop into his brain, he used non-sense stand-in phrases. The dummy version of the fi rst line was “Scrambled eggs, oh my dear, you have such lovely legs.” This approach could be useful for you in

the coming weeks, Gemini. As you create a fresh approach or novel departure in your own life, you might want to show the patience McCartney did. Be willing to ep moving ahead even though you don’t have the full revelation quite yet.

Brag about your fl aws and weaknesses and mistakes, preferably with a grandiose lack of inhibition. Send your boast to Truthrooster@gmail.com.

CANCER (June 21-July 22)I suspect you’re going to feel a bit constrained in the coming weeks, Cancerian—maybe even imprisoned. I suggest you make the best of it. Rather than feeling sorry for yourself and spiraling down into a dark night of the soul, try this: Imagine that you’re a resource-ful hermit who’s temporarily under house arrest in an elegant chalet with all the amenities. Regard this “incarceration” as a chance to start work on a mas-terpiece, or upgrade your meditation practice, or read a book you’ve needed an excuse to lose yourself in. Believe it or not, your “deprivation” could be one of the best things that has happened to you in a while.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)I won’t be surprised if people begin to compete for your attention. There may even be some pushing and shoving as they jostle to get closer to you. At the very least, you can expect a fl urry of requests for your time and energy. What’s this all about? Well, your worth seems to be rising. Either your usefulness is fl at-out increasing or else those who’ve underestimated you in the past are fi nally tuning in to what they’ve been miss-ing. So here’s my question and concern: Will you get so seduced by what everyone asks you to give them that you lose sight of what you really want to give them? I suspect there will be a difference.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)I’m not saying that you should create a superhero iden-tity for yourself and embark on a campaign to combat injustice. But if you’ve ever wondered whether the life of a costumed crusader is right for you, it’s an excellent time to experiment. Your courage will be expanding in the coming weeks. Your craving for adventure will be strong, too. Even more importantly, your hunger to do good deeds that reach beyond your own self-interest will be growing. Interested? Check out the Superhero Supply website to get yourself operational. It’s at www.superherosupplies.com.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)All 26 of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ stories about Tarzan are set in Africa, but he never once visited that continent. And Bram Stoker didn’t feel the need to travel to the Transylvanian region of Romania in order to write about it in his novel “Dracula.” But I don’t recommend this approach to you in the coming weeks, Libra. If you want to cultivate something new in your life by drawing on an exotic infl uence, I think you should immerse yourself in that exotic infl uence, at least for a while. If you want to tap into the inspiration available through an unfamiliar source, you need to actually be in the presence of that unfamiliar source.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)Why would you choose this bright, sunny moment to descend into the dark places and explore the ferment-ing mysteries? What renegade impulse would move you to turn away from the predictable pleasures and easy solutions, and instead go off in quest of more complex joys and wilder answers? Here’s what I have to say about that: I think you long to be free of transitory wishes and fl eeting dreams for a while so that you can get back into alignment with your deeper purposes. You need to take a break from the simple obsessions of your grayish, poker-faced ego, and re-attune yourself to the call of your freaky, evergreen soul.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)Sufi holy man Ibn ‘Ata Allah was speaking about prayer when he said the following: “If you make intense sup-plication and the timing of the answer is delayed, do not despair of it. His reply to you is guaranteed; but in the way He chooses, not the way you choose, and at

the moment He desires, not the moment you desire.” While I don’t claim to be able to perfectly decipher the will of the divine, my astrological research suggests that you will soon get a defi nitive answer to a question you’ve been asking for a long time. It may come softly and quietly, though, and from a direction you don’t ex-pect and with a nuance or two that’ll test your refl exes.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)“Is Fast Food Too Tempting?” read a headline in The Week magazine. The accompanying article discussed whether people have the right to blame and even sue McDonald’s and Burger King for their health problems. In my opinion, we might as well add other allegedly appealing poisons to the discussion. “Is heroin too tempting?” “Is cheating on your lover or spouse too tempting?” “Is watching TV fi ve hours a day too tempting?” I hope you’re seeing where I’m going with this, Capricorn. The coming weeks will be a good time to take personal responsibility for any supposedly fun activity you’re doing that warps your character or saps your energy. It’s prime time to end your relationship with stuff that’s bad for you.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)“The mind loves order, the heart loves chaos, and the gut loves action,” my astrological colleague Antero Alli says. The ideal situation is to honor each of these needs, keeping them in a dynamic balance. But now and then, it’s healthy to emphasize one over the other two. According to my astrological analysis, you’re entering one of those times when the heart’s longing for chaos should get top priority. But if you do choose to go this way, please promise me one thing: Do your best to tilt toward the fascinating, rejuvenating kind of chaos, and tilt away from the disorienting, demoralizing kind.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)When people are truly dehydrated, the impulse that tells them they’re thirsty shuts down. That’s why they may not know they’re suffering from a lack of water. In a metaphorically similar way, Pisces, you have been deprived so long of a certain kind of emotional suste-nance that you don’t realize what you’re missing. See if you can fi nd out what it is and then make measured (non-desperate) plans to get a big, strong infl ux of it. The cosmic rhythms will be on your side in this effort.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)All of us have gaps in our education. You and I and everyone else alive have dank pockets of ignorance that diminish our humanity and musty pits of naiveté that prevent us from seeing truths that are obvious to others. We all lack certain skills that hold us back from being more fulfi lled in our chosen fi elds. That’s the bad news, Aries. The good news is that the gaps in your education will be up for review in the coming weeks—which means that it’ll be an excellent time to make plans to fi ll them. Here’s a good way to get started: Be aggressive in identifying the things that you don’t even know you don’t know.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)You don’t have to answer to anybody this week, Taurus. You don’t have to defend yourself, explain yourself, or compromise yourself. You can do those things if you want to be super extra nice, but there won’t be any hell to pay if you don’t. It’s one of those rare times when you have more power than usual to shape the world in accordance with your vision of what the world should be. I’ll go so far as to say that the world needs you to be very assertive in imposing your will on the fl ow of events. Just one caveat: Mix a generous dose of compassion in with your authoritative actions.

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